It's Only Just Begun
by skygirl55
Summary: Traveling home for the holidays comes with more complications than Kate Beckett is prepared for; particularly after she runs into a famous mystery writer. A Caskett Pre-Show AU holiday tale. For the CastleFicathonWinter2017
1. Chapter 1

**It's Only Just Begun**

 _Traveling home for the holidays comes with more complications than Kate Beckett is prepared for; particularly after she runs into a famous mystery writer. A Caskett Pre-Show AU holiday tale. For the CastleFicathonWinter2017_

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 **A/N:** There are 8 chapters - one a day up to Christmas

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 **Chapter 1**

With a grunt, Kate Beckett dropped her heavy duffel bag onto the smooth tile floor and winced as she brought her right hand up to rub across the spot on her neck where the bag's strap had cut in. She rolled her shoulder a few times to alleviate the tightness and used her feet to nudge the bag closer to the wall where it would be out of the walkway and wouldn't disturb the travelers walking around her. When her fingertips grazed across a particularly rough spot on her skin, she groaned again before looking down at her bag and cursing at it; she was stuck with it for the duration of her trip now, but she would never again use it for a cross-country trek, particularly not in winter when all her clothing was heavier.

As she stood out of the way, Kate decided to once again remove her heavy jacket. She'd put it back on after going through security, thinking it would be easier to wear it rather than carry it along with her bags, but the airport terminal was far too warm to make that decision comfortable. As she shrugged her shoulders and flopped her arms to let the coat slide off, Kate gazed around and took in the food kiosks in her immediate vicinity. Each seemed to be adorned with some form of holiday décor, even it if was as simple as a few red ribbons.

With a slight eye roll, Kate draped her coat over one arm and then heaved her duffel off the ground again. She then began making her way towards her departure gate once more while trying to ignore the festive atmosphere around her.

Kate didn't hate Christmas; not really. As a holiday, it was fine. Every year from childhood through adulthood she had spent Christmas with her parents and nearly every year yielded fond memories. The cheer, the warmth of the season, and the delicious foods all somehow combined into a joyous event. She would even go as far as to say that she looked forward to it every year. What she did not look forward to, however, was the travel relating to going home.

Over all the years after she graduated high school, Kate had never traveled back to New York this close to Christmas. When she was still getting her undergrad and then law degree at Stanford, the semester ended early enough to give her plenty of travel cushion. During the two subsequent years when she was doing grunt work at her firm to prove herself, her parents had actually come to San Francisco to be with her for the holiday, so she hadn't traveled at all. The prior year, she'd gone home to Manhattan, but had saved enough vacation to spend nearly a week at home with Christmas falling in the middle of her stay, but this year she had a case that didn't afford her that luxury, so she was stuck taking a red-eye that would land her in her home city just two days before Christmas.

When booking her flight, Kate had hoped that the midnight takeoff time would limit the crowds at the airport, at least insofar as departures. After all, the only flights taking off at that hour would be ones traveling all night to the east coast, and how many of those could their possibly be? Evidently a lot judging by how crowded the terminal was. Each passenger she passed seem to be weighted down with an atypical amount of luggage, which made sense given that winter wear was bulkier than other clothing and people were probably also toting presents along with regular travel necessities. Kate had opted to ship her presents ahead of time so she didn't have to carry all of them, but from the looks of it she was probably one of the only ones who had done so.

After getting bumped and jostled far more than she would have liked, Kate finally arrived at her designated departure gate. She sidled her way through the tightly packed seating area, which was made even narrower by people's carelessly placed luggage, until she found an empty seat. With a grunt, she dropped her heavy duffel to the ground and then collapsed into the barely-comfortable airport chair.

Leaning back into the seat, Kate hugged her purse to her chest with one arm while her feet rested astride her bag. She kept her elbows tucked in tightly to her sides since the armrests on either side of her seat were occupied and briefly wondered how long she'd need to sit that way when she realized she wasn't even sure of the time. Digging into the outside pocket of her purse, she procured her cell phone and flipped it open so she could read the display. She saw that the time was ten after eleven p.m., or still twenty minutes before her flight boarded, but more interestingly she saw that she had a text message from her boyfriend, Chris.

Soft smile crossing her face, Kate used the phone's buttons to click her way to the message inbox on her phone. _Have a great flight; talk to you tomorrow_ , the message read. Kate shut her phone and tucked it back into her purse without responding. Then, she rested her chin on her fist and her elbow on her thigh as she propped her head up. She liked Chris; she really did. They had met over the summer at a Young Professionals of the Bay Area mixer. Like her, Chris was a lawyer, though he worked in environmental law not corporate law like she did. He was also busy and traveled because of what he did, so even though they agreed to date exclusively, they still only saw each other an average of once a week. Kate didn't mind this at all, as it gave her the opportunity to get to know Chris gradually and, most importantly, not share too much of her heart all at once. For eleven months of the year that kind of relationship worked well, but holidays made it more challenging.

When it came right down to it: Kate didn't want to spend Christmas with her boyfriend. Specifically, she didn't want him traveling home with her to spend Christmas with her family, particularly not when in all likelihood it will be their last together. If she thought too hard about it, she would have been forced to come to the conclusion that those sentiments meant that ultimately her relationship with Chris would not be a long term one; it would never lead to marriage, but that was fine. She had just turned twenty-eight; she didn't need to be thinking about marriage yet, not when she was so focused on her career.

For the time being, she was perfectly content with Chris as her boyfriend. She enjoyed spending time with him when they were able, and when they weren't, their phone calls were sufficient. As he was a native San Franciscan, she had even joined his family for the Thanksgiving holiday and met his sister and brother-in-law along with his parents. As she hadn't spent too many holidays with boyfriend's families, she'd been worried about it being awkward, but it wasn't; they were perfectly nice people just like Chris was, but one nice meal was hardly indicative of a perfect future. Besides, why would she invite a boyfriend home to meet her parents—something she had yet to do outside of college both because of geographic difficulties and a lack of want to do so—when she wasn't even sure how much longer they'd be together, particularly if she chose not to remain on the west coast. In her mind at that moment she figured there was a twenty-five percent chance she'd be moving inside of a year, but that entirely depended on the state of her mother's illness, which she could not gauge until she saw her in person.

"Are you sure about that? Can you please check again?"

Kate's attention was drawn away from thoughts of her family by a familiar-sounding voice from not too far away. Looking up, she saw a tall man in a dark coat with floppy brown hair leaning heavily on the United Airlines counter nearest her gate. Her brow wrinkled slightly as she tried to place the man—thinking he may have been a client or someone she interacted with through the firm—but she could not recall his name, though he did seem rather familiar to her.

"I'm sorry, sir. We do have record of your ticket, but no seat has been assigned. I can do that for you now if you'd like."

"Ma'am—Sherry, your name is Sherry, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, Sherry—the thing is when I called yesterday to rebook my flight, I was told that I had a first class seat."

"I'm sorry that you were misinformed, sir, but there are no first class seats available on this flight. If you'd like, I can try and look to see if any flight tomorrow have first class seats and book you on one of those."

Kate watched as the man winced and pinched the bridge of his nose. Ultimately, he shook his head and said, "No, no I…I need to get home. What seats are available on this flight?"

Humming softly to herself, Kate leaned over and unzipped the edge of her bag so she could pull out the book she'd tucked in at the last minute. Poor guy, she thought to herself, thinking of the passenger cheated out of his first class seat, for which she had no doubt that he paid a first class price. Normally, she probably would have simply rolled her eyes at someone so insistent on getting a first class seat, but on a red-eye, she felt it was justified. If she had the disposable income to do so, she certainly would have bought a first-class ticket herself, as spending the night attempting to sleep with her head tucked beside a plane window certainly would not be the most restful. However, her wallet didn't really leave many other options open.

Before opening her book, Kate checked the time on her cell phone once again mostly out of pure habit. A quick calculation in her mind told her that it was well after two in the morning in New York and she silently hoped that her father was asleep and had been so for at least an hour. He'd always been the more anxious and prone to sleep disruptions of her two parents, and her mother's illness had only amplified that. She had lost count of the number of times over the prior few months he'd finally returned her call after midnight New-York-Time and from the stress and strain in his voice she knew he'd be pacing the halls for hours after they spoke. Many times Kate had volunteered to move back to her home city in order to help her father, but he continually refused. He was doing fine, he told her, and her career was the most important thing. She knew he believed that, but she still wasn't sure putting career above her family was something she wanted to do any longer.

Blowing out a breath through her lips, Kate shut her eyes and tried to push all heart-wrenching thought of her mother's frail state from her mind. Odds were her eyes would be filled with tears many times in the upcoming days, but she certainly didn't need to start that in the San Francisco airport. There would be more than enough time for that back home in her childhood bed. For now, she just needed to read and attempt to relax herself so she could fall asleep on the flight home.

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As he sidled his way down the tight airplane aisle, Richard Castle's heart sank a little as he passed the last first class seat and entered the cramped, stifling cesspool that was economy seating. God, how long had it been since he'd flown in one of these uncomfortable seats? Oh, well there was that flight he'd made to DC the prior year, but they had hardly been in the air any time at all! For a cross-country flight? He definitely couldn't remember the last time he sat outside of first class.

Seeing as he spent the first twenty-four years of his life without very much money to his name, Castle hated to be "that person"—the entitled, wealthy individual complaining about sitting with the lowly middle- or lower-class people. And, truly, it wasn't the people he cared about, but the space. He was a large man at just over six-one and two hundred thirty pounds. Though the people at Boeing would probably disagree, economy seats simply weren't meant for men of his size to be comfortable for long stretches of time. Despite this, it appeared he had little choice in the matter, so he'd just have to deal with it. After all, what was six hours over the span of his entire life? Certainly not enough of a chunk to ruin his holiday week over.

The bright side of all this was that he would get to see his daughter half a day earlier than he originally planned—his daughter and his mother; his family. After the week he had, he definitely craved the presence of his two favorite women. The press tour itself hadn't been any more grueling than usual, but the voicemail he received from his now-estranged wife certainly had been a blow. Evidently, Gina hadn't seen fit to tell him in person or even over a live phone call that she would not be returning to his loft apartment after she spent the holidays with friends in Vermont. Instead, she'd be moving into a new sublet on the second day of the new year.

Considering that they hadn't been physically intimate since the end of September, Castle couldn't say he was shocked that his second marriage would soon be ending in divorce. Quite frankly, the majority of their two year marriage had been more tension-filled than not, and he was surprised she'd stayed as long as she had. Well, there was the money and the lifestyle; she liked both of those things very much. Everything pertaining to him, on the other hand…well, that was a different story. Still, telling him that she was leaving him in a voicemail was cold even for Gina; no wonder she'd made a last minute excuse not to go with him for his press appearances and had sent one of the junior literary agents instead.

As he waited for a man to attempt to stuff a clearly oversized bag into the overhead big, Castle shut his eyes and sucked in a slow, calming breath. As not even forty-eight hours had passed since he received Gina's voicemail, he knew he hadn't fully processed that his second marriage had come to an end in an oddly similar way to the way his first had. True, Gina wasn't packing up to move across the country with her new lover, but from the male voice he heard at the tail end of her voicemail, he suspected she was going to be spending the holidays with a gentleman friend in addition to her two female ones. Probably another writer, Castle thought with no small amount of bitterness.

Though he wanted to wallow, drink more whisky than necessary, and obsess over wondering what was wrong with him that made two wives leave him, Castle knew he could not. Christmas was barely two days away and he needed to pick himself up and salvage what was left of the seasonal cheer in his heart in order to give his daughter a great holiday. He wouldn't tell her before Christmas that Gina wasn't coming back; there would be no point to it. He would save that until a day or so later. They would have a whole week at home together before she went back to school and he'd find the right time. Though he knew her to be wise beyond her years, Alexis was still only twelve and would probably struggle to understand why Gina wasn't coming back. He would do what he could to assure her they would be okay, but he also remained thankful that she was never terribly close to her technical step-mother.

Finally, the man with a heavy beard and flannel jacket gave up on his bag and handed it to a flight attended so it could be stowed under the plane. When he took his seat, Castle was able to continue on down the aisle, which was now completely clear all the way back to his seat in the third-to-last row. He glanced again at his boarding pass and realized with no small amount of disappointment that he was in seat B; the middle seat. God, could it get any worse?

"Excuse me, sir," Castle said to the man on the aisle when he arrived at the proper row. The man appeared to be around his mother's age and was already reading the airline magazine provided in the seatback slot. "I'm in the middle—would you mind?"

The man shook his head and quickly slid from his seat, stepping back behind the row so Castle could get in. He ducked his head and clutched his bag even tighter to his chest as he slid his body into his seat as smoothly as he could. God—how were these seats this small!? It was ridiculous!

Huffing out a breath, Castle bent over at the waist and stuffed his bag beneath the seat in front of him. Thank goodness for Black Pawn's new kick of mailing its client's luggage when traveling cross-country. He doubted it would last long as there was no way it could be economical, but for that moment he was thankful he didn't have anything else to inconvenience him.

As he sat back up in his seat, he realized that the person beside him, the one sitting by the window, was now looking his way. He hadn't noticed before as he was too worried about actually fitting properly in the seat, but now he saw this passenger was a woman and a pretty one at that. She had dark hair that was pulled back and tied in a knot atop her head, which gave him full view of her lovely face. Her eyes were a curious color, somewhere between hazel and brown, and she had cheekbones that made him wonder if she'd ever been a model. He smiled at her, thinking she might smile in return, but she didn't; she merely turned back to the book in her lap.

"Excuse me, sir?"

The sound of a flight attendant's voice called Castle's attention towards the aisle. The blonde woman pointed down towards his feet and said, "Your bag is not fully beneath the seat in front of you. Will it fit? Or does it need to go in the overhead?"

"Ah, no, no it'll fit," he said. At least, it had on the prior two travel legs he'd taken that week. Grumbling, he leaned over again and tried to stuff the bag further under the seat. He didn't know what, but something was blocking it, so he tried to pull the bag all the way back out and try again, but in doing so his right elbow collided with the shin of the woman sitting beside him. She let out a grunt and he shut his eyes and cursed to himself.

Thankfully, his bag fit perfectly on the second try shoving it beneath the seat, so Castle was able to sit up again and apologize to the woman now scowling at him. "Sorry about that," he tried to brush off the incident with a light laugh. "I'm not used to the middle seat." After one more second of looking perturbed, the woman once again turned back to her novel.

Shutting his eyes, Castle leaned his head back and tried to get comfortable. He shifted his butt around in the seat, trying to find a comfortable position, but ended up pushing his knees forward enough to ram into the seat in front of him. He winced and reached forward to rub his patella, but in doing so hit the arm of the man beside him, who was apparently intent on using both of the armrests available to him. Gritting his teeth, he rubbed his knee and tried to take in a soothing breath. God, they weren't even up in the air yet and the fight was already too long. How the hell was anyone supposed to sit comfortably like this!?

Doing his best to narrow his body, Castle tucked his hands between his thighs and gazed over at the woman beside him. She was being courteous enough to allow him their shared armrest, which was nice, but as he looked over at her he could tell she had plenty of room. She was sitting with her right elbow propped on the far armrest and seemed to have inches to spare in her seat; she looked so small!

As he continued to observe, he realized that assessment was not entirely correct. Given how close her knees were to the seat in front of her, he knew her legs had to be quiet long. Perhaps not quite as long as his, but still long meaning she was tall, but slender and, really, the middle seat was an issue of width, for they all had equal amount of leg room (or lack thereof).

The longer he gazed at her, the more solidly a plan began to form in Castle's mind. Presumably this woman had chosen the window seat for a reason, but that did not mean she was entirely committed to it, particularly if he could provide some incentive.

Plastering on his most debonair Richard Castle smile, he reached over and tapped the woman on the shoulder. When she turned to him a bit incredulous he said, "Hi, excuse me. My name is Rick; what's yours?"

Her eyes flicked up and down his torso for a moment before she said, "Kate," in a tone of utmost suspicion.

"It's very nice to meet you, Kate. I was wondering: would you perhaps consider switching seats with me for a hundred dollars?"

She blinked. "Excuse me?"

A bit louder, he said, "Will you switch seats with me for a hundred dollars? I really like the window."

She continued to stare at him for almost thirty seconds. Her expression made it clear she was half expecting him to retract his statement and say it was a joke, though he did not. Ultimately, she said, simply, "No," and returned her eyes to her book.

"Two hundred?"

"No."

"Three hundred—and I swear that's all the cash I have on me!" He offered sounding a bit more desperate than he intended. When she didn't speak or look at him, he continued with, "C'mon—it'll be like riding for free," as a last means of encouragement.

Kate huffed out a breath and slammed her book shut. Turning to him she said firmly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Castle, but I also like the window."

Castle leaned back in his seat and gazed at Kate, now even more intrigued. She knew who he was without him revealing his last name, but yet was not flustered or falling for his charms. That was interesting. He estimated her to be around her mid-twenties, certainly no old than thirty. His fan base was generally not within her generation, so did that mean she knew of him because her mother or grandmother read his books? But if that was the case, how could she recognize him so randomly? No, she definitely had read his books; he was certain of it.

"Okay, Kate," he continued, "how about three hundred dollars _and_ I'll sign anything you'd like. Since you know who I am, you know how valuable that is."

She snorted out a laugh and then said firmly, "No."

"Really!?" he responded, a bit shocked.

She merely reached down into her bag, grabbed what ended up being a nighttime eye mask from the side pocket, and slipped it over her head before saying, "Goodnight, Mr. Castle," pulling the mask over her eyes, and settling back in her seat with her arms folded over her chest.

Though he wanted to be mad at Kate, Castle knew he couldn't be for he would not have switched seats if he were in her position. As he looked around and saw that most people in the back of the plane were seated, he considered making a similar offer to someone in the surrounding rows. He slid forward and arched his back to look at the row ahead, but could see the two by the window holding hands, which meant it would be unlikely that one would switch with him. In the row behind, a boy around thirteen or fourteen sat by the window. He considered this, but then decided that while the kid might jump on the cash, he didn't want to deal with the rather stern looking mother, who would probably not appreciate his suggestion.

In a final desperate attempt, Castle made to look across the aisle to see if the other side of the plane had any options, but as he did so he could see the flight attendants gathering in the aisle to do their pre-flight safety demonstration. Grumbling to himself, he realized he was too late; he would be stuck in the middle seat for the flight and there was nothing he could do about it.

Before he could close his eyes and settle down, Castle reached for the bottle of water in the side pocket of his bag. He'd purchased it after the United gate attendant printed his board pass, thus sealing his economy seat fate and ensuring he would not get all the free drinks he desired in first class. As Castle twisted the cap to unseal it, he realized he was twisting a bit harder than he originally would have found necessary. Evidently, his bottle had a faulty seal that was simply twisting round and round instead of breaking under the tension so he could open the cap. Trapping his tongue between his teeth he tugged a bit harder, which succeeded in opening the bottle, but unfortunately it also caused water to slosh out and land directly in Kate's lap.

"Fuck." He breathed out as she whipped off her facemask and glared over at him.

Cautiously, he twisted the cap back onto the bottle and said, "I'm so sorry; I didn't mean…here let me-"

"No, it's fine."

"Really, I can—shit!" He cursed again when they both leaned down towards their stowed bags at the same time and the tops of their heads met in a jaw-rattling collision.

"SERIOUSLY!" Kate barked, now clearly furious with him.

Castle held up his right hand defensively. "I'm so sorry—I was just trying to get you a-"

"Well don't." She snapped. "I'm fine; please just leave me alone."

Seeing as her yelp had drawn the attention of some surrounding passengers, Castle shrank back into his seat the best he could and folded his arms tightly over his chest. The last thing he wanted was for the others to think he was being inappropriate with her, when really he was just being clumsy and accident prone. Pressing his lips tightly together, Castle shut his eyes and tried to focus on the flight attendants warnings about what might happen in the event of an emergency.

This was definitely going to be a very long flight.

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 **A/N** : Thank you for reading! As I said earlier, there are 8 chapters in total (no epilogue!) and I will post daily updates.

I do have 1 source of inspiration for this fic, but I'm not going to say it yet bc that will give it away :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Once again folks we apologize for the inconvenience. If everyone would disembark in as organized fashion as possible, we would appreciate it. Our United gate agents will be waiting to assist you with rebooking."

"This is unbelievable." Kate simply couldn't help herself from commenting aloud when she stood up in her seat as much as the low ceiling near the window would allow. She watched as the other passengers begin to disembark the plane and felt her stomach clench with a mixture of anxiety and anger.

When she didn't feel the plane immediately begin to back away from the terminal after the flight attendant's safety speech, Kate didn't take much notice as she was trying to fall asleep. The more time passed, however, she grew concerned and when she took off her facemask to see Richard Castle's face contorted with displeasure she felt even more worried.

"It's been almost twenty minutes since they closed the plane door and we haven't moved; that's probably not good," he had said when he caught her eye. Sure enough, he was correct, and barely a few minutes later the pilot came on the loudspeaker to announce that their plane had engine trouble and would not be flying that evening.

"Completely unbelievable," she grunted as she leaned down to fish her bag out from under the seat. Now, instead of arriving home on the morning of the twenty-third she could probably at best hope to arrive the night of the twenty-third; maybe even later. And that also meant leaving the airport and coming back, which was bound to be even more nightmarish. What a mess!

"Yeah," Castle said, turning his head to smile at her. "It's a shame we couldn't find Rudolph or something—to fly the plane…you know like…the…sleigh…" He continued, his voice trailing off with each additional word presumably in response to how she glared at him.

Though she was not always one to look on the bright side (she was more of a realist than optimist) Kate did have to admit to finding one positive in their travel SNAFU: she would no longer need to spend six hours beside Richard Castle, world's most annoying author. Considering she could still feel the damp denim near her knee where he'd spilled his water bottle that was certainly a silver lining. True, if they had both fallen asleep he might not have been that much of a bother, but they also had nearly six hours of travel time ahead of them; who knew what liquids he could toss her way in that time. She probably would have been coated by the time they made it to JFK.

Kate impatiently tapped her fingertips on the headrest of her seat while she watched the annoyed passengers file off row by row. As she watched a traffic jam form thanks to a man who had accidentally dropped his bag, she was hit with a horrifying notion: all these people needed to rebook their flights which meant they were all lining up at the ticketing desk ahead of her. That meant by the time she finally deplaned and joined them in line, she would probably be there for another hour—or longer! Just what she needed when all she wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up much closer to home.

When the row in front of them finally began to clear out, Kate shouldered her bag and waited for her row to do the same. Just as Castle stepped into the aisle, he swung his bag up from the floor with such force that it swung backwards and nailed her squarely in the stomach. Caught off balance by the blow, Kate stumbled back and landed with an uncomfortable, "Oof!" as her rear came in contact with one of the metal armrests.

The writer spun around with a look of horror. "Shit I'm so-"

"Don't." She cut him off by raising her hand up, palm facing out. "Just go."

He apologized again before carefully making his way down the aisle with his duffel bag held in front of him. A moment later, Kate pushed herself to a standing position again and mimicked his actions. _Jesus_ , how in the world was a man that famous such a bumbling fool? Kate supposed that his clumsy tendencies were perhaps a reason that his profession was a solitary one; he couldn't hurt anyone while sitting behind a computer all day long.

When she finally emerged from the jet bridge and reentered the terminal, Kate found that unsurprisingly the ticketing lines were quite long. However, since there seemed to be three United employees trying to help the large group of people, they were not quite as long as she expected. She actually found the fact that so many employees were available that late at night shocking, but didn't want to question it. Instead, she stepped into the line she was directed to and tried to wait as patiently as she could.

Half an hour later, Kate was finally within three haggard passengers of reaching the front of the line. She was just beginning to get hope that she would soon be able to sit down and give her aching back and shoulder a rest when a horrible thought hit her. From that point in the line she could hear specific things being said by the United gate agents instead of just the ambient airport noise. From what it sounded like, most people were being rebooked on flights at varying times the following day, but how many vacant seats could possibly be available this close to Christmas? What if they ran out of seats by the time she reached the front of the line?

As her mind begin to spin more and more terrible scenarios, Kate wondered if perhaps she would need to fly on Christmas Eve—or maybe even Christmas Day? If she didn't arrive until late in the day on Christmas and had to turn around and return to California three days later, was it even worth the trip? For an ordinary trip, she probably would have said no; she probably would have rescheduled for January were that the case. She very much doubted her mother's health would decline significantly in two weeks, but by moving her trip all together she would miss out on what was probably the last Christmas with all three of them, and that would certainly be devastating.

"Ma'am? Excuse me, ma'am; you're next."

Kate was startled from her thoughts by the United attendant's voice and the person behind her in line giving her a nudge in the center of the back. She used her feet to nudge her heavy bag forwards and stepped up to the counter and apologized for not responding sooner. Then, she handed over her boarding pass and curled her fingers around the top lip of the counter a bit more firmly than necessary as the haggard looking brunette woman—Mary, according to her nametag—tapped away at a keyboard.

"Okay, Ms. Beckett, it looks like you're booked on this exact same flight tomorrow night, which will put you in New York at nine fifteen on December 24th."

Kate's stomach lurched in her gut. Christmas Eve morning?! While an improvement over her feared Christmas Day scenario, it was certainly a less than desirable outcome. "There are no earlier flights available?"

"I'm afraid not; everything else is booked."

"Not even if I wanted to make a connection? Or what if I went into Newark instead?" she asked, thinking that might give her a larger variety of options.

Mary turned back to her computer and began tapping at the keys once more. After several moments she said, "Oh, well if you wanted to go to Newark, I have a flight that would land at six forty a.m. on December 24th but I'm afraid the only seat available is in first class; you'd have to pay the difference in fare."

Leaning more heavily on the desk, Kate began in an almost pleading tone. "Are you sure there's nothing else? I really need to get home."

Mary shook her head. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but this close to Christmas nearly all the flights are full."

"But there has to be something!" Kate's voice rose a bit higher than it should have. "My mother is in the hospital—I need to get home to her. Please—can't…can't you check another airline?"

"I can refund your ticket and you can try to rebook with another airline; you might have some luck with a flight tomorrow. Or, you can stay on the flight leaving tomorrow night and arriving the morning of the twenty-fourth."

Kate could tell that Mary was nearing the end of her patience from her tone, and had the situation not involved her ill mother, she might have had more sympathy, for this woman had most likely had a very long day and was only trying to do her job. Instead, Kate thought about how much she would be missing her mother and how hard the holiday would be even if her travel plans had gone smoothly. She felt her bottom lip begin to tremble and her diaphragm flutter in her gut so she simply rushed out, "I'll take tomorrow's flight; thanks."

"Great," Mary said, offering the smallest of smiles. Then, she tapped a button on her computer and said, "Your new flight information is printing now. Once again, United apologizes for this delay."

Kate accepted her new travel information with a meek thank you before hefting up her duffel bag once more and shuffling her way towards the terminal exit. As she had been sitting in the back of the plane, not too many passengers remained in line and since it was so late, no passengers for other flights seemed to be around at all. Kate knew she needed to keep moving and make her way out of the airport to the ground transportation area to get a cab (hopefully all of those weren't gone too), but her feet were weighted down with the disappointment of her failed travel plans. She managed to get out of the way of the hallway, but when she reached the next pillar separating the hallway from a seating area, she leaned her right shoulder heavily against it, dropped her chin to her chest.

As she stood in the terminal biting back her tears of frustration and disappointment, Kate knew shew as being foolish. Arriving on Christmas Eve morning would only ruin her holiday if she let it. She would still have four days with her parents and given how frail her mother was they would probably be spending the majority of that time in the apartment, so she would be able to soak up as much quality time as possible, but it was still very, very disappointing.

"Um, excuse me?"

Kate jumped when she felt fingertips brush against her arm. Her head jerked up and she turned quickly to the side to see—

 _Oh_. The dopey smile of Richard Castle; _perfect_.

"Hello again," he began as his grin grew dopier. "I'm very sorry—I didn't mean to eavesdrop—but I couldn't help but overhear when you said your mother is in the hospital. I'm sorry to hear that. I was, um, well about to call a charter company to see if they have any planes available—and you're welcome to accompany me."

"I—what?" Kate merely blinked at him. As weariness had been seeping into her brain ever since getting off the plane, she had not entirely processed his statement.

"A charter plane; I'm going to try and find a charter plane. We might even be able to leave tonight."

"Wha…why?"

He shrugged one shoulder and his dopey smile returned. "I'd really like to get home to my daughter. Christmas, you know."

She nodded slowly. She couldn't say she was shocked that a man who was clearly a multi-millionaire was seeking another route home than the unfavorable options provided to him by a commercial airline, but could not understand why he was inviting her along for the ride. "But…why are you asking me?"

"Well…there will probably be four or five empty seats, so why not?"

Though his smile made her feel slightly better about her situation, Kate still wasn't sure that joining him was the best idea. "That's, um, very kind, but you really don't have to do that."

"But I want to," he countered. "Just let me make some calls. You can hang out for a few minutes, right?"

"Ah—yeah. Sure." She shrugged.

"Great. I'll be back!"

As she watched him walk away while holding a cell phone to his ear, Kate leaned back against the pillar and chewed on her bottom lip. Seeing as barely forty minutes earlier she had been thrilled about not sharing an aircraft with Richard Castle, she was perplexed by the fact that part of her was actually considering joining him. True, on a charter plane they would not be sharing the same four feet of space, which presumably meant his ability to spill liquids on her would be limited. Hell, they would probably each have their own row and barely interact the whole flight, but should she really take him up on the offer? She didn't know him; they had just met that evening. Though it was probably highly unlikely he had unsavory motives, the lawyer in her did question why he was being so kind to an utter stranger.

Then again, if traveling with Castle could get her home nearly a day sooner, maybe it was worth the risk.

* * *

Standing in the middle of the terminal, Richard Castle huffed out a breath and shifted his weight side to side while crackling elevator music played in his ear. He hated being on hold, but hopefully the charter company would be able to find a pilot and thus his wait would be worth it.

Turning his body as he waited, he caught a glimpse of Kate out of the corner of his eye. She stood with her back against a pillar, both hands wrapped around the strap of her duffel bag as she practically strangled it with her fingers. His heart clenched as he thought about how desperate her voice had sounded when she asked the United gate agent if anything could be done to get her home sooner since her mother was in the hospital. How terrible! In the hospital this close to Christmas... He hoped it wasn't anything too grave, though from her tone he could not be certain. Up until that moment, Castle was going to happily accept his first class ticket to Newark that would depart in twenty hours and not think twice of it, but when he heard her voice he almost immediately changed his mind.

As it was his favorite holiday, Castle had believed in the power of the Christmas spirit for almost his entire life. Even in the wake of his pending divorce, he still wanted to make the best of the season and if he could do one simple thing to make someone's holiday easier, he felt it was his duty. True, hiring a charter plane was not quite the same caliber gesture as buying a cup of coffee or even a full meal, but after what a fool he'd been while sitting beside her for that brief period of time, he felt it was a good idea. Plus, he would be joining her and be able to see his daughter over a full day sooner so, really, what was fifteen thousand dollars? Alexis's hugs were invaluable.

"Sir?" The elevator music cut off quickly when a woman's voice was once again heard on the line. "Good news, sir; the pilot is available to fly tonight."

"Perfect!" Castle grinned. Then, he dug around in his bag for a pen and something to write on. (Fortunately, as a writer by profession, he almost always had a notebook and writing utensil close at hand.) He jotted down the pertinent information for how to find the correct terminal for their departure, and then dug out his AMEX Black card in order to pay for the trip.

 _Merry early Christmas to us_ , he thought as he ended the call and put his wallet back in his pocket. Then, turning around, he plastered a smile on his face once more as he walked back to Kate.

"Good news," he began; her head whipped up to gaze at him. "By the time the pilot gets here, the plane will be all gassed up and ready to go."

"T-tonight?" she stammered out, her voice obviously indicating surprise.

He bobbed his head. "No time like the present. You still want to get home, right?"

"Y-yes. Yes, of course but…I—are you sure about this, Mr. Castle? You really don't have to take me along with you."

He shrugged. "Why wouldn't I? The plane's going to fly whether or not all the seats are full. Besides, you can consider this an apology for my less-than-gentlemanly behavior on the plane. Oh—and you should call me Rick."

"I…" Her voice drifted off and she cleared her throat before stepping forward and gazing at him steadily. The gratitude and appreciation in her hazel eyes made his heart flutter beneath his ribs. "Thank you, Rick; truly."

He dipped his chin. "Of course; now let's find this plane, shall we?"

Her brow wrinkled. "Oh, right. It wouldn't be in this terminal, would it?"

He shook his head. "No. I've never flown privately out of this airport before, but they gave me instructions on where to go. Oh shoot!" Castle stopped walking abruptly and looked at his companion. "You don't have a checked bag, do you?"

She shook her head. "No, no; just this." She patted the bag on her shoulder.

He nodded in acknowledgment and then continued to lead the way through the now mostly desolate terminal. Knowing they had several minutes of walking ahead of them—not to mention the one-on-one travel time—Castle decided some get-to-know-you small talk would be the best way to pass their time.

"So, um, if you're going to see your mother, is it safe for me to assume you've been to New York before?"

He heard he chuckle lightly. "Ah, yeah; I grew up there."

"In the city?"

"Yep, Manhattan."

He smiled. "Me too. When's the last time you were back?"

"In May, but before then it had almost been two years."

"Long time."

"Yeah, but I was so busy I guess it really didn't seem like that."

He hummed as they walked out of the secured area of the terminal so they could take an external route to the correct terminal. "That busy, huh? What do you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm a lawyer."

"Ohh!" He winced as he groaned aloud. "Just as I was starting to like you, Kate. I'm teasing," he added quickly, not knowing how she'd react to his ribbing.

She merely shrugged. "Don't worry; I've heard most of the jokes before."

For the next fifteen minutes they moved mostly in silence through the deserted areas of the airport. Kate at one point asked if they were allowed to be walking where they were walking, but he pointed out that no one was stopping them, which to him meant they had yet to arrive at a restricted area. Finally, they found the charter company's office, but it was still dark and locked so they had to wait outside for ten minutes until someone on the airfield side of the security fence came over to let them in.

"Oh, perfect," Castle commented when they were led into an open hanger where a sleek, shiny private jet awaited them. He turned to his left to smile at his new companion, but faltered when he saw the positively stunned look on her face. "Are you okay, Kate?"

"Wha—ah. Yeah…." She gazed at him tentatively, then back at the plane, and then back at him. "I guess…I mean, I've seen private planes on TV or in news articles but I just… This must be so expensive. I should at least-"

"Kate, please." He held up his hand to stop her before she could make whatever offer she intended. "Don't even think about it. Christmas is the season for splurging."

"I…suppose…" she said, though she didn't sound convinced at all.

The airline employee informed them that the flight crew would be arriving shortly, and they should take a seat in the waiting area. Castle soon discovered this to be a room filled with plush furniture, several flat screen televisions, and a fancy coffee bar which, understandably, did not appear to be brewing at that moment. He and Kate sat on couches opposite each other without saying much for over ten minutes until there was a knock at the waiting room door and a woman in a sharp business suit poked her head in and invited them back to the hangar.

"Welcome, Mr. Castle. My name is Rebecca and I will be your cabin attendant this evening. Are you or your traveling companion in need of anything presently?" The woman said as she led the way towards their plane, which was now parked just outside the hangar with the stairway open towards the ground.

"Ah, no; I'm just going to be going to sleep as quickly as possible. Kate?"

"I'm fine, thank you," she responded politely.

Rebecca nodded. "Well, be sure to let me know if that changes. Go ahead," she said, sweeping her arm towards the stairs.

Castle thanked her and then ducked his head to climb up into the plane. Once inside he saw it appeared very similar to the private transport he'd used before with cushy leather seating and plenty of legroom; it was perfect. He stepped inside far enough to allow Kate to board behind him and then he nodded towards the vacant seating area. "Ladies first."

She gave him a sideways gaze. "Looks like we can both have window seats."

He grinned, appreciating the joke and taking it as a sign that she forgave him for his actions on their earlier flight. "Yes we can."

While she took a seat on the right side of the plane, he chose a seat on the left so they wouldn't inadvertently crowd each other. Rebecca took each of their bags and stowed them before handing them blankets and asking if they required anything else. Kate shook her head and he confirmed, "No, we're fine; thank you."

Rebecca nodded. "Well, then you two just sit back and relax; we'll be in the air in no time."

When she ducked into the cockpit, Castle settled down in his seat and spread the blanket down over his lap. Turning, he watched as Kate did the same. "Hope you sleep well, Kate," he told her.

She nodded to him. "You too, Rick."

With that, Castle tucked his hands beneath the blanket, leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes knowing he would probably be asleep before they even took off. Then, hopefully, when he woke up they'd be just about to land and he could see Alexis; it would be perfect.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Castle was having the strangest dream. He was walking through his apartment, only it was very dark and hazy. He turned on a light, but it didn't illuminate very much, almost as though the lamp was covered by a dark cloud. Distantly, he could hear beeping, but it was steadily growing louder. He wondered what the beeping was, but then realized it sounded oddly like the microwave. Who was using the microwave?

"Gina?" he called out to his wife, but he didn't hear a response. He looked back towards his office, but it was too dark to even see the door, so he decided to investigate himself.

Just as he stepped into the kitchen, he felt the room pitch to one side. He stumbled into the counter as his sock-covered feed skidded against the tile floor. What was going on? What was wrong with the foundation of the apartment? He took another step forward, his hand skimming against the smooth countertop, but soon it began to rattle and shake. The counter bucked and rippled as though it was no longer attached to the cabinet base. What the hell was going on?

Castle took one more step forward, but suddenly found himself moving quickly forward unable to stop his motion. Just as his torso slammed into the opposite side of the counter, he startled awake.

What the hell?

Around him he could hear a rushing of air and a beeping sound that definitely was not coming from a microwave, but his still-asleep brain could hardly process what was going on. He blinked and shook his head, trying to force himself awake. The cabin interior was very dark, light only by dim track lighting near the ceiling. He could just barely see the shadowed outline of Kate still curled in her seat asleep. Was it possible that he was still dreaming?

Turning to the other side he reached out for the plane window shade and pushed it open. He could just barely see the blinking lights of the wing, but something seemed off. They were pitched downward—why were they pitched downward? They couldn't be landing; it was still completely dark outside.

Suddenly, the entire plane rattled so much that his teeth knocked together in his head. Castle cursed and brought his hands up to cup his jaw. Looking around the plane once more he came to the conclusion that something was wrong; very, very wrong.

Reaching down to unbuckle his seatbelt, Castle gripped onto his seat's armrest and pushed himself up into a standing position. Holding on to the back of his seat with one hand and the plane's wall with the other, he called out, "Hello? Rebecca?" but his voice was lost to the rattling and distant beeping. Jesus—what was going on?

Suddenly, horrific scenarios began spinning through his overactive imagination. They were plummeting, falling from the sky. Why? How? He didn't know, but they were definitely headed for a rough landing.

Castle's mind flashed back to nearly four years prior when he'd been researching a scene for one of his Storm novels. He'd spoken to pilots and flight crew about how someone—perhaps a well-trained spy whose aeronautic skills were rusty—could land a doomed plane. He'd had those conversations, he'd mapped out the plan, but _fuck_ —for the life of him he couldn't remember it! Why hadn't he taken those flight school classes his mother had suggested?!

Cursing his decision to choose video games over actual flight simulators, Castle began to push his way towards the cockpit door. Surely, all was not lost and there was some way to land their plane in a (relatively) safe manner. He could hear the engines still roaring and looking out both sides of the plane told him neither was aflame, which to him meant that a safe landing was entirely possible. Perhaps there was some other sort of malfunctioning happening that the pilot was busily trying to correct. Were that the case, Castle didn't want to interrupt, but he was hoping that Rebecca could assuage his concerns.

Castle had barely taken one step forward when he suddenly found himself unable to remain upright. He pitched forward, flipped, and landed on his back on the floor with an unpleasant smack. Unfortunately, that was not the end of his trauma as the plane began to rattle and shake while deafening booms and bangs filled the air. At one point as he rolled side to side Castle felt a searing pain in his shin that coincided quite timely with a high-pitched shriek he presumed came from Kate. He was midway through wondering if she was alright when the plane lurched again, that time feeling as though it was doing summersaults through the air while accompanied by great sounds of metallic crunching.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, everything went still.

"Oh god, what—oh. Shit. Shit."

Castle was vaguely aware of his companion's curses, but in that moment he felt too stunned to react; everything hurt. His head, his back, his shoulder, his shin—oh, god, his shin. He let out a moan as he rolled over onto his right side and curled his knees in closer to his chest. This simple act caused him to yelp as pain radiated down his right tibia. Shit! It was entirely possible part of his leg were now broken. At the mere thought of this, he moaned.

"R-Rick? Rick—are you—god—where are you?"

"Here. On the ground." He managed feebly. Jesus Christ how did everything hurt so much?

"Oh—oh god. What happened?"

Rick blinked his eyes rapidly. As the pain in his shin lessened ever so slightly, he was able to focus his eyes on his surroundings. He could see the dim lighting of the plane flickering and then Kate's silhouette came into view above his head, though from his perspective she was upside down. "I, um," he swallowed hard, struggling to believe the words were coming out of his mouth. "I think we crashed."

"Well, yeah; we're definitely not moving anymore." She pointed out. "Were…were you sleeping?"

"Y-yeah I…I woke up and I could tell something was wrong. There was beeping and shaking and…I don't know. I just got up to see if I could find Rebecca or figure out what was going on. Next thing I knew I was on the ground."

As his eyes adjusted to the light he could tell her face was contorted with concern. "Well, try not to move, okay? You could be seriously injured."

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so. I mean, I feel fine. I'm going to see if I can see anything, okay?"

He grunted in response and shut his eyes, sucking in a deep breath. His leg was definitely feeling better now that he wasn't moving it, but the pain was still there and steady. He knew Kate had a point about him being otherwise injured, but it wouldn't be safe for him to lie there indefinitely, so he decided to mentally check through his extremities. He shifted his head, checking for neck pain, but there was none. His right shoulder ached, but he still had range of movement in it. He clenched his stomach muscles in and out and felt an unpleasant tug in his right ribs, but again it didn't make him cry out in pain. He didn't want to move his legs, so instead he reached down and began gently tracing the crest of his knee down over his shin. He'd only moved several inches when he reached what was obviously a tear in his jeans that was covered by a damp, sticky substance; that definitely wasn't good.

"I can't really see anything; it's pitch black outside," Kate said when she returned to his side.

"I'm not really shocked. We could have landed in the middle absolutely nowhere for all we know."

"Yeah, I—oh! Rick, I think you're bleeding."

He could hear the concern in her voice and appreciated it, though there wasn't much that could be done about it. "Ah, yeah, I think my leg might be broken."

"Shit, um…okay hold on let me see if I can get a look at it. I…I need a light…where's the light?"

Castle had not seen where Rebecca turned down the cabin lighting, though it was entirely possible it would not get much brighter in there, especially if they were down to auxiliary or emergency power. He thought for a moment about what could be used, when he recalled that he'd used his cell phone's display backlighting in a pinch one time when Alexis had dropped something between the seats in the car.

"Here, ah, my phone." He dipped his fingers into the edge of his pocket to retrieve the device, which he handed to her.

"Um, okay, hold on."

He watched as she held onto the seatbacks to step around his body. Once she was crouched in the front aisle near the exit, he lifted his head ever so slightly to observe her face as she he'd the phone close to his leg and swept it up and down his shin. She remained silent for almost a full minute, which naturally made him very uncomfortable and caused his mind to spin terrible scenarios that involved compound fractures and life-threatening infections.

"How does it look?" he asked finally.

"It's hard to tell because this light isn't the greatest. It's definitely cut open; I can see blood. The cut is maybe…ah, it's really hard to tell." She cringed, gave a little shrug and then looked at him. "The cut on your pants is at least five inches long, but that doesn't mean your leg is cut that much."

"Oh well—ah!" He grunted when movement in his leg resulted in pain once more. "That's not good."

"No…I'm going to wrap it to stop the bleeding, okay? Just hold on." She placed her hand gently on his forearm for a moment before pushing herself up, hopping over his head, and walking back towards their seats. She returned a moment later with a cloth object balled in her grip and returned to her original position. "Do you think you can hold your phone up for me?"

"Yeah, yeah of course. Just move my hand where you need it." Castle popped his head up with his left hand and held his phone in his right so he could both help and observe at the same time. He balanced his right elbow at the crest of his hip bone and held the phone where he thought it would be helpful. Kate grabbed his wrist and adjusted the phone's position before picking up the cloth object from her lap and gazing down at him tentatively.

"This is probably going to hurt."

"Yeah, I know." He gave her a small smile and then gritted his teeth as he braced for pain.

He watched Kate unfurl the cloth object, which he then realized was a scarf, and slide part of it beneath the gap in his two shins. She held either end of the scarf for a moment, clearly debating the best course of action, when finally she began to wind one of the ends tightly across his leg; he yelled out in pain.

"Sorry, I'm sorry," she said quickly. "Is it too tight?"

"Maybe a little," he grunted as he could feel the pulsating throbbing in his calf muscle.

She undid the tie on the scarf and pulled the bindings loose to start the process over. As she did so, he could see her grimace and he asked what was wrong. "Nothing I just…I think the cut looks pretty deep. Wonder what you hit it on?"

"No idea."

"How'd that feel?"

He nodded, pulled his right arm into his chest, and then relaxed his head against the ground. After taking in several deep breaths he said, "Better, I think. I….hey Kate?" Castle swallowed hard when his eyes focused on the cockpit door in front of them; the door he'd momentarily forgotten about thanks to his injury.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think the pilot would have come out of there by now? Or that lady—Rebecca."

"Oh." Kate frowned, looked towards the closed door, and then back towards him. "Probably."

"That's not good right?"

"Probably not."

"Shit." Castle cursed. While the two of them had survived the flight—and he certainly wasn't complaining about that!—it appeared the crew was not as lucky. Perhaps they weren't dead, but they were certainly injured enough not to exit the cockpit, which he imagined they would have done in any normal emergency circumstance.

"Well." Kate rocked back on her heels and then stood. "I guess I should take a look, right?"

"I will if you help me up."

"No!" She insisted quickly, holding her hand out, palm facing down. "No, you try not to move too much; we still don't know how injured you are." Kate then turned and took the two steps it took for her to arrive in front of the private plane's cockpit door. She reached out her hand for the handle, tugged on it, stopped, and then tugged on it again a bit harder. After a moment her hand dropped from the handle and she turned back to him. "These doors lock from the inside on private planes too, don't they?"

"Right…" He sighed and let his head drop back down to the floor. Well, that was certainly a problem. If both the pilot and flight attendant were seriously injured, there was not much he or Kate could do to get to them as was the whole point of the reinforced door design that planes had in the post-9/11 world. "Well I guess we—what was that!?" He demanded when a loud creak-groan was heard echoing through the plane cabin.

Looking a little startled herself, Kate gazed around and said, "I'm not sure. Sounded like it was outside. Like maybe the wing was moving?"

Castle huffed and pushed himself up to a sitting position. As his leg moved, he grunted out in pain and sucked in a deep breath. He shut his eyes and breathed out slow, knowing that no matter how much pain it would cause him, they had to get off the plane. "Well, that just serves as a further reminder, then; we have to get off this plane in case it explodes."

"Explodes?!" Kate squeaked.

"Catches fire—whatever; writer's imagination." He waved his hand flippantly at her. "Actually, I wrote a scene like this once—small plane, crash imminent…"

"Yeah but didn't Storm jump out of the plane before it crash?"

For the first time since he was jolted awake unpleasantly, Castle grinned as he looked up at his companion. "So you are a fan of my books!"

"I, um, I'm—let me see if I can open this." Kate quickly turned towards the plane's exit while Castle rested his shoulder against one of the seats and smiled; the fact that she appeared flustered confirmed to him that she was a fan—and that was interesting. In light of that knowledge, he thought back to when they first met on the plane in San Francisco and found it curious how short she'd been with him. Then again, he supposed he couldn't entirely blame her given how he had behaved. Plus, just because she was a fan of his novels did not necessarily mean she had to be a fan of _him_.

After examining the door for just a few moments, Kate was able to heave it open and then immediately proclaimed, "Shit! It's freezing!"

"Well, it is December," he pointed out.

Visibly shivering, she walked past him back to her seat and grabbed her coat and blanket. She put the coat on then tossed the blanket over her shoulder before walking over to where he'd been sitting. She picked up his blanket from the ground, tossed it over his other shoulder, and then picked up his coat. "Okay—do you think you can stand?"

"Don't really have much choice," he pointed out with a wry smile. She held out her hand to help him, but he refused, knowing he'd be fine using the arm rests on either side of the aisle as leverage to assist him in standing. Moving around caused searing pain in his shin to return, but he tried his best to breathe through it. Once he had his left leg firmly planted, he leaned his right arm heavily against a seatback and gingerly lowered his right foot. He put some tentative weight on it, and it didn't feel much worse than before so he decided to take a small hobble forward. Again, the pain was about the same, which had him hoping that he hadn't broken his tibia after all. Still, hobbling wasn't exactly going to do him much good getting out of the airplane.

"Okay, um…I'm a little concerned about jumping down to the ground," he admitted, glancing back at her over his shoulder.

"Oh…I don't think that's going to be a big problem."

He arched a curious eyebrow at her. "Why do you say that?" Her response was only to gesture towards the now open plane door so he limped over to examine it. Gazing out, he could see what remained of the plane wing was crumpled and appeared to have ripped down the center. The far edge was bent and resting against the ground as one of the lights at the tip still blinked feebly now and then. Seeing this illumination was what made Castle understand what his companion said about the decent. Looking straight down, he doubted the drop was more than two feet, which wasn't terrible, but probably more than he wanted to attempt on a bum leg.

"Okay so I think—would you mind getting out and helping me down?"

She shook her head. "Not at all." As she walked by him, she handed him his coat, which he quickly put on and zipped up. Once she was on the ground outside, he leaned heavily on the plane's doorframe to slide himself down to the floor and sat with his legs dangling over the edge door. This left less than a foot to the ground, so with Kate holding one of his hands, he was able to pop out and land. He yelped in pain when his right foot hit the hard ground—pavement, he quickly realized—and Kate quickly moved to his right side and ducked under one of his arms, so he could brace himself against her as they moved away from the wreck.

"We're on pavement. Do you think this is a road?" He asked, silently hoping it was not because that probably put them in more danger.

"No I think it's an actual landing strip."

"An airport!?" he asked, hopeful for a brief moment.

She hummed. "Well I don't know about that. If I had to guess I'd say that the pilot knew we were in trouble and tried to land, but failed, obviously. This might be some sort of unofficial or perhaps no longer used airstrip."

Castle lifted his head and gazed around, but virtually nothing could be seen around them other than blackness. He couldn't see any lights in the distance from his vantage point; it was as though they landed on a foreign planet. Thinking that perhaps the hour might give him some perspective, he pulled his phone back out of his pocket and gazed at the display.

"Almost four a.m. that means we're probably about halfway across the country," he said. Then, struggling to recall his knowledge of US geography he continued with, "I think…Nebraska? We might be in Nebraska."

"So the middle of nowhere," Kate concluded.

"Well….yeah."

"Great." She huffed.

They stood in silence for a few moments on the spot where the tarmac became grass before Castle slid away from Kate's supportive frame and hobbled back a few steps towards the plane, where flickering lights inside the cabin could be seen. "Hey Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"Do—do you think maybe you could see in the windows to check if the pilot is okay?"

"Um. I can try." He watched as she disappeared back into the darkness. He could only vaguely see her shadow moving around where the plane was, but couldn't tell exactly what was going on until she called out, "No; I'm too short to see inside at this angle."

"Oh…okay."

"Hang on."

He continued watching until he saw her shadow hop back into the plane's cabin area. He was just about to call out and ask what she was doing, but he figured she couldn't hear him. Or, even if she could, he wouldn't be able to hear her response, so he merely tucked his arms tighter around his body and tried not to shiver too much from the cold.

Much to his surprise, Kate emerged a moment later with what looked like each of their duffel bags. She chucked them out of the plane before jumping down herself. He heard her grunt as she hoisted up both bags and then returned to his side. "Sorry, I wanted my phone and then I picked up your bag and it wasn't heavy at all so I figured I'd grab it. Where's your stuff, by the way? You said you didn't check a bag…"

"Luggage was shipped back to New York," he explained. "So does your phone have reception out here? Because mine does not."

"Um…lemme see." He heard her unzip her bag and then heard the sounds of rustling as she presumably shuffled through it. Finally, she proclaimed, "Ah! Got it!" and he could see the small light beside him as the device booted up. Unfortunately, a minute later she discovered her phone also lacked a signal.

"Guess that solidifies that we are in the middle of nowhere."

"Pretty much. So, what's the plan? I mean, I'd say we should start walking except I don't know how far you'll get."

"Well." Castle gazed down at the ground and considered their situation. She was correct in her assessment that his injury would not exactly enable him to walk and find help—particularly if that walking was over a great distance. Or, realistically, any distance; he doubted he'd make it more than a few hundred feet before needing a break. Considering that it was freezing cold outside, exposure became his next concern. Being inside the plane would provide a small amount of shelter, but it would be too dangerous; they had no way of knowing if it would burst into flames.

Considering that they appeared to be on some sort of landing strip, Castle could only hope that the pilot was aware of their distress and had thus put out a mayday call over the radio. If that was the case, it was possible help was on the way, though not a guarantee. Either way, they needed to formulate their own plan as they were fighting a battle against Mother Nature.

"If I keep one of the blankets, I can hunker down right here—close enough to the plane in case help comes, but far enough away to be safe. Then, hopefully if you follow this tarmac you'll be able to find a road and then people. If my phone doesn't have a signal, it's probably still picking up west coast time, which means it's probably actually around five a.m. which means…what? Two hours until daylight—give or take. Maybe with the light you'll be able to-"

"Hang on." She interrupted her plan and stepped up right in front of him, though he couldn't see her face due to the lack of light. "I'm not going to leave you here."

"Well that's nice of you to say, but I don't think we have much choice here…"

"I see your point about needing help but…hold on." She sighed and he couldn't see what was going on until he felt her hand on his leg and yelped from a mixture of pain and surprise. "Sorry, hold on; I'm checking."

"Checking for what?"

"You haven't bled through the scarf; that's good."

"Okay…great?" he offered with slight confusion. "I don't see your point."

"If you haven't bled through the scarf yet, that means you're not bleeding badly enough for your life to be imminently in danger. If it is, like you said, around five a.m. here, I think we should wait it out until dawn; it'll be much safer for us to go find help if we can see."

Castle pressed his lips together. Though he hated to waste two hours of time, she did have a point. He didn't know where in the wilderness they were and they were completely unable to see. Kate could come across wild animals or, at the very least, an unsafe area of ground. She could fall, hurt herself, and then they'd both be doomed.

Sighing, he rubbed his hand over his brow and said, "Yeah, okay, you—hey! What's that?" he gasped when he saw a small light in the distance on the other side of the plane. He hadn't noticed it before, but that wasn't surprising since his eyes were gradually adjusting to the almost total darkness.

"Hold on…let me see if I can see…" Kate walked several feet away from him until he could no longer see her shadow and then she called out, "It, um, it might be a building. I don't want to call it a terminal but…the building associated with this airstrip? Maybe?"

"Only one way to find out," Castle said before beginning to walk in her direction.

"Hold on—don't you want to wait here while I go check it out?"

"No; it can't be that far. Let's just go together."

He heard her sigh. "Well, at least let me help you."

* * *

"Well, it's definitely a building."

Kate grunted as they came to a halt just in front of the structure they'd seen from a distance. Between the heavy weight of her companion resting over her right shoulder and the extreme discomfort on her left shoulder from the two bags she held, Kate feared losing the moment of their forward motion would mean she'd never get started walking again, but at least there was hope they would soon find salvation from their dire situation. She estimated that the trek from where their plane crash-landed to the building took around fifteen or twenty minutes to complete, which meant fifteen or twenty additional minutes they were exposed to the chilly winds of middle-America. Seeing as the tip of her nose was beginning to sting from the insistent winds, she knew they needed to get out of the elements as quickly as possible, but unfortunately the building had no egress beneath the light they'd seen from a distance. The building had to have a door somewhere, though, which meant only three more sides to search.

"Left or right?" she asked him.

"Right, I think. Seems more like that's the direction the pavement is going."

She said nothing but instead focused on picking up her right foot and moving it forward and then doing the same with her left while the heavy bags banged against her hip and thigh. As their progress continued, Kate began to review their insane predicament in her mind and honestly still struggled to believe it. Then again, as plane crashes were relatively uncommon, she never anticipated being in one herself. Though in the immediate aftermath she had been in near total shock, during their trek over the pavement reality had set in and Kate's adrenaline had begun to settle out of her muscles, causing them to shake. Thank god she'd had the task at hand to focus on and keep her going otherwise she might have collapsed into sobs on the ground. Instead, she and Rick progressed one small step at a time.

"Ah! Bingo!" He proclaimed when they rounded the next corner of the building and discovered a door with a glass window panel in the middle of it. He removed his arm from around her shoulders and reached out for the handle, though Kate couldn't figure out why; the door would clearly be locked. "So." He turned to her after unsuccessfully trying to turn the handle. "Were breaking in?"

"Yep," she agreed immediately without any thought of consequence. "Let me find a rock."

After dropping their bags to the ground Kate used the light on her phone to scour the area for something to use to break the glass, but didn't find any stones larger than her thumbnail. She expanded her search region to the far side of the building and ultimately found a broken cinderblock. It was quite heavy to hoist up, but she knew with utmost certainty it would break the window.

Kate allowed her companion to do the honors and, as expected, the glass utterly shattered on the first try. She then used the edge of her blanket to knock out as many shards as she could before Castle reached in and unlocked the door handle. He also turned on the light before ushering them inside.

"Well, no alarms went off, which I actually think is a bad thing for us," he pointed out as they walked into the mostly vacant area.

From what Kate could best tell, they were in what formerly was an office associated with whatever airfield they landed at. The desks were mostly bare, with scattered chairs and filing cabinets filling in the rest of the space. She scanned her eyes over every surface in search of a phone, but when she finally found one, it appeared her gaze was too slow because the writer was already hobbling towards it.

"Dial tone! Yes!" He cheered, punching the air with his left fist. He sat on the edge of the desk by the phone and punched three numbers into the keypad, presumably 911. He only held the phone to his ear for a moment before proclaiming, "Shit!"

"What?"

Giving her a perturbed look he said, "It said 'your call cannot be completed!' Now what?"

Kate clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip and scanned the room. On a hunch, she walked to the closest desk and began pulling out all the drawers; they were empty, so she did the same to the next desk until she found what she was searching for. "Ah…thought there might be one of these," she said, holding up the phone book.

"So….you want to call everyone starting with the A's until someone answers?"

"No." She half-laughed at his suggestion. "Look—Washington County, Kansas." She pointed to the front of the book. She walked over to where he sat, put the book on the table, and began flipping through it. "They're bound to have a number for police or an ambulance or—ah-ha! Here, call this and see if someone answers."

After reading out the number, she took a seat on the opposite side of the desk and waited with her heart thrumming beneath her ribcage. Yes, they had shelter, but she didn't want to have to wander all over Washington County to find help—or do as Castle suggested and call every number until someone helped them. Fortunately, they didn't have to, because a moment later she heard him say, "Yes—hello? Yes please—we need help."

Several minutes of repeating, "Yes, seriously," over and over again, Castle hung up and announced, "They're coming to get us, but it'll be fifteen or twenty minutes."

Kate threw her hands up and proclaimed, "I'll take it." Then, she walked around the desk so she could sit beside him and nodded down towards his leg. "How's it feel?"

"Um…not great, but not terrible, I guess. All things considered, anyway. Thanks, by the way, for wrapping it—and helping me."

She gave a small shrug. "Of course." She wasn't the type of person to leave him bleeding on the ground of a crashed plane. Actually, she hoped there were no people like that in the world. As they sat in silence for several moments, she began to feel slightly unsettled about their prior interaction. Seeing as they had successfully navigated a crisis-like situation, she realized her initial assumption that the writer was a bumbling fool had clearly been incorrect and while she hadn't called him one aloud, she still needed to make amends.

"I'm sorry—about earlier."

"Hmm?" He hummed as he turned to face her.

"How I acted when we first met—I was rude to you."

"So was I," he returned.

"You were…accident-prone. I was rude. I'm not…I was just pretty stressed going into the trip, but that's not an excuse. I'm sorry."

"Perhaps we should start over. Rick Castle, nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand.

"Kate Beckett; you too," she said with a slight laugh before shaking his hand.

He smiled at her and said, "Mind if I ask you something, Kate Beckett?" She shrugged and nodded so he continued, "Well…I'm just curious—it's the writer in me; I can't help it. I was wondering if you had any medical training?"

"No; I'm a lawyer."

"I know, you said, but…I don't know, you were so good with my leg. I just thought maybe you used to be an EMT or something. Never mind."

Kate felt her chest tighten momentarily and considered not responding at all, but then she figured why not? After the Washington police picked them up and took them to what she could only assume was a small town not a city, they'd probably part ways and never see each other again. "I, um, I guess I'm just used to medical stuff because of my mom; she's been sick for a while. In and out of the hospital and-"

"Shit! Oh shit!"

Kate slid off the desk and stood, startled by his outburst. "What? What is it?"

"Your mom! The hospital! Oh shit—I'm so sorry, Kate. You wanted to get home to see her sooner and now…now we've crashed in the middle of nowhere and it's my fault."

Her brow wrinkled. "Your fault? How is this your fault?"

His shoulders rounded and he looked at her, defeated. "Because I hired the private plane."

"Yeah and I don't imagine you wanted it to crash either." She pointed out, but when his expression didn't change, she reached out and gently touched his shoulder. "I'm not mad at you, Mr. Castle. Your intentions were kind, and I appreciate that. This is…just an accident." True, in the shock, she had yet to fully process their situation, but she certainly would never blame him for it; that was ridiculous.

"Well…you never know. I don't know where Washington, Kansas is, but if it's close to Kansas City you might be able to get a flight back to New York and you'd still get there tonight—which is sooner than you would have if we were still in San Francisco," he said positively.

She shrugged. "Sure, maybe. Right now, though, let's just focus on getting back to civilization in one piece, okay?"

He nodded. "Agreed. Oh, and Kate?"

"Yeah."

His dopey smile returned as he said, "You should probably call me Rick. After all, we did survive a plane crash together."

She huffed out a breath. "Yeah, okay, Rick." With that, she sat back down on the desk to wait for the officials from Washington County to arrive.

* * *

 **A/N** : I will now reveal that this fic was very loosely inspired by the book/movie _The Mountain Between Us_

Please note I have not seen the movie or read the book; I only saw the movie trailer and thought it might mesh well with the other idea I was thinking through (C meets B on a plane and accidentally spills drink on her)

As always, thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

In the waiting room of Washington General Hospital, Kate sat with her right leg crossed over her left, her right foot bouncing up and down as a way to mitigate her anxiety. She drummed her fingers against the chair's armrests and gnawed steadily on her bottom lip. The ER's waiting room was thankfully vacant and she hoped that fact was a sign her luck was changing; at least she didn't have to be among dozens of sick patients while she waited—it was practically the height of cold and flu season after all. Still, she was frustrated since there seemed to be no end to her waiting in sight.

Several hours had passed since Washington County officials met them just outside the municipal airport at which they crash landed and began firing dozens of questions their way. Though she and her companion had few answers to provide, they did apologize for breaking into the terminal and offered to pay for the damages. Given how perturbed the officer they spoke to seemed, she for the first time feared they would be charged with burglary or damaging the property, but when the sun rose and all parties were able to see the crash site, their transgressions were quickly forgiven and she and Rick were whisked off to the hospital so their injuries could be assessed.

Because of the violent landing she was involved in the doctors in the emergency room were concerned she was suffering from internal bleeding. Kate assured them she felt fine, but appreciated their thorough exams on the off chance she was still feeling the effects of adrenaline and thus not fully aware of her own physical condition. They were quickly able to determine she was uninjured, though, and she'd been in the waiting room ever since; she was not permitted to leave the hospital until the police returned to interview them.

Once she was finally on her own, Kate used that opportunity to phone her parents as they expected her in the city shortly. Speaking with her father, she gave him a brief explanation of what transpired overnight and how she ended up in Kansas, though she did downplay the crash as an "emergency landing" so as not to cause him any further worry. He simply expressed relief that she was safe, and told her it didn't matter when she arrived, only that she did so safely. After promising to keep him updated, Kate ended the call with her father and tried to call her boyfriend back in San Francisco, but the call went right to voicemail, so she only left a message stating that plane trouble had landed her in Kansas and she'd talk to him again when she had the chance.

As yet another unpleasant wave of boredom washed over her, Kate turned her attention back to the book in her lap. Since beginning her journey she had yet to read more than ten pages of it. Though she had plenty of time to herself to read at that moment, she simply couldn't focus; her thoughts continued to drift towards Rick Castle.

The last time she had seen him had been when they parted ways in the emergency room. Washington County had only sent one ambulance (to be honest, Kate wasn't sure if they even had two) and since neither of their conditions were critical, they were permitted to ride together in the back. Once at the hospital, though, they were whisked in opposite directions by different teams of doctors. As the ER was rather small, she knew vaguely where he was, but didn't want to interrupt the doctor's work. She had asked a passing nurse of his condition, but the nurse told her she couldn't disclose any information. Though this annoyed her, Kate understood this reasoning. She and Rick weren't family—hell, they weren't even good friends—and the hospital had a policy. Still, she wanted to know if his leg was broken or if he would need surgery. Especially after everything they'd been through together, she wanted to make sure he was alright.

"Ms. Beckett?"

Kate startled at the sudden sound of her name. She turned to her left and saw one of Washington's deputies standing just a few feet away, so she stood and said, "Yes, hello. Do you have an update for me?"

"Actually ma'am I'd like to speak with you about the crash—you and Mr. Castle. I think it would be easiest if we all chatted together. You can come with me."

He waved her forward and she scooped up both duffel bags from the ground as she had temporarily taken control of the luggage. She walked with the officer towards one of the triage areas where she could just barely see the outline of Rick's head from between the curtains. When he got close enough the officer pulled back the curtains all the way so she could see Rick seated in bed. He wore a hospital gown with a sheet pulled up to his waist, but when he saw her, he gave a small smile.

"Hey—are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. How's your leg?"

He shrugged. "Still waiting to hear the results of the x-rays." Then, looking towards the officer he asked, "Were you able to get the pilot and flight attendant out of the plane?"

Seemingly ignoring his question, the officer began what sounded like a rehearsed speech. "First and foremost I would like to speak on behalf of the Washington County Emergency Responders to say that we are both glad that you two are doing as well as you are, all things considered. We met at the site earlier this morning, but to refresh your memory, I am Deputy Daniels and I am here to conduct a post-incident interview."

Kate gazed over at Rick, who looked back at her, but only for a moment. "I, ah, we'll help as best we can, deputy, but were the other two people in the plane alright?"

The deputy cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to say that one of them was deceased and the other was med-evaced to a trauma hospital in Topeka, but that's all I'm allowed to say at this time during the investigation."

"God," Rick said, looking back to Kate. She swallowed hard, presumably wondering the same thing he was: which one of them had survived and how gravely were they injured?

Pulling out a small notebook from his breast pocket, the deputy turned to Kate. "Ma'am, could you please tell me what you recall about the accident?"

She merely shrugged in response. "Nothing. I woke up when we were crashing. I had no idea what was going on until we stopped moving all together which was about…ten seconds—if that long." Waking up during their impact had been so disorienting, Kate could barely recall it at all. She initially thought the strange movement was part of her dream, but then she heard screaming, and as soon as she realized it was her own voice making the sound, she ripped off her sleep mask, but by that time they had come to a halt. After that, she didn't remember much until she heard Rick's voice.

"'fraid I'm not much more help," Rick chimed in. "I woke up and thought something was wrong because I could hear beeping and it felt like we were going down towards the ground, but a moment later we were crashing just like she said."

The deputy nodded and jotted some things down in his notebook. "Well, I appreciate that folks; every little bit of information helps. I'm sure the FAA will also want to speak with you directly; they're reviewing the crash site now."

Kate pressed her lips together tightly as she considered this statement with the lawyer side of her brain. Normally she imagined federal agencies did not permit witnesses to leave the scene until they were properly interviewed. Of course, medical necessities overrode that rule so she imagined the FAA had no problem with her and her companion being transferred to the hospital, but would they be forced to remain there until the FAA spoke with them? And if that was the case, how long would they be waiting? Hours? Days? Surely it would not be the later as those agents had families as well and presumably wanted to see them for Christmas, but she couldn't be certain.

"Excuse me but does that mean we won't be able to leave town until the FAA does speak with us?"

"I'm not sure ma'am, but I can try and find out for you. Right now your health is everyone's top priority."

"Of course, but I was medically cleared," she pointed out.

The deputy hummed and stroked his fingers over the base of his jaw. "Well, then let me go and see what I can find out for you, okay?"

Kate thanked him and he nodded before walking away. Turning back to the writer beside her, she opened her mouth to inquire about any other injuries he might have sustained in the accident, but didn't get any words out before he quickly said, "You should go as soon as you can, Kate. I mean, as soon as they say you can; your mom needs you."

A breathy noise that wasn't quite a laugh escaped her lips. "You say that like I can just hop the next subway train."

He huffed out a breath. "Well no but-"

"Good news Mr—oh! I'm sorry." A nurse wearing pale pink scrubs startled just a few feet away from Rick's bed. She then stood awkwardly in place, holding a clip board with both hands, staring at each of them in turn for several seconds.

Taking this as a cue, Kate said, "I should go."

"No, no; its fine." He jumped in before looking towards the nurse. "It's fine. Do you have my x-ray results? Is my leg broken?"

The woman smiled at him. "It is not. We'll finish cleaning it, stitch you up, give you some antibiotics and you can be on your way."

"Well, hopefully anyway," he said, looking up to Kate.

She smiled at him. "That's great news."

"Very. I..oh. More shots?"

When Kate noticed the writer's face contort with displeasure, she turned her head to look in the direction he stared. There, she could see the nurse wheeling over a tray that appeared to be littered with at least half a dozen different needles. As she had become almost completely immune to medical procedures (particularly those being performed on others), this sight did not faze her; however, she did acknowledge that it could be daunting to some.

"You just a few more to numb the area for the stitches," the nurse said matter-of-factly. Meanwhile, Rick's expression did not ease even in the slightest.

"Don't like needles?"

He gazed up at her hesitantly. "No…I mean, it's fine I just…I…."

"Here," Kate said, holding out her hand in front of his as she had done so many times with her mother during the procedures she went through. In that moment, it didn't matter that they were nearly strangers. She understood the importance and value in making sure someone facing a medical procedure knew they weren't alone.

Rick gazed up at her tentatively, "Oh you—you don't have to…"

She merely shrugged. "I'm used to this with my mom. It's fine." She promised with a casual tone. He then took her hand and offered a quiet thank you as their joined palms descended to rest by his left hip. Kate watched quietly as the nurse pulled back the bed sheet on his right side, exposing his leg. The wound was covered in a bandage, which she swiftly pulled off and Kate grimaced at the torn appearance of his flesh; his leg would definitely more than a few stiches.

Rick hissed with discomfort and squeezed her hand a bit tighter as the nurse began to work to clean the injured area. "Have, um, have you ever needed stitches?" he asked her.

She hummed and nodded at the recollection of the only incident she faced. "Cut myself with a knife in college and I needed three stitches at the base of my thumb, but that was it. You?"

He groaned and squeezed her hand a bit tighter. "Yeah, several times, but it never gets easier."

For the next several minutes they remained silent while the nurse finished cleaning his wound and then began to administer the lidocaine to numb his skin in preparation for stitches. After that, she walked away to find the doctor who would stitch him up and Rick dropped Kate's hand, thanking her for her kindness. She stood loyally by his bedside as they waited for the doctor to arrive, which only took two minutes as the ER remained rather vacant.

The doctor got to work swiftly and as the nurse stood by his side, she smiled curiously at both of the newcomers. "You two are causing quite a stir here, you know? Practically everyone in town has heard about the plane crash."

"Probably don't have too many of those," Rick said.

"No, thank goodness! And it's such a shame about the time of year—traveling home for Christmas, right?"

"Yeah," they said in unison.

"Well, hopefully we'll have you two back on your way very soon." She was silent for a moment before her eyes lit up again and she appeared rather excited. "Oh you know, with everyone here so eager to talk to you, we can probably get someone to take you to Manhattan."

"Wha…" Kate stammered and then looked down at Rick, who gazed up at her appearing equally perplexed. "Y-you mean drive us?"

The nurse shrugged. "Sure—it's only about ninety minutes."

"Excuse me?" Kate's brain was struggling to process the nurse's words, but she wasn't sure if that was the exhaustion talking or if someone had invented a super-sonic car she was not aware of.

"Manhattan—to the airport."

"Is there, by chance, a city named Manhattan in Kansas?" Rick asked.

She nodded. "Of course—what did you think I meant?"

"Well, we're from New York…"

The nurse let out a loud that was way too hard and loud for the situation they were both in. "Oh! Oh my!" she spluttered out as she continued to giggle. "You thought I meant New York City? That is funny!"

"Hilarious…" Kate said under her breath, not that she had actually believed that someone would voluntarily drive them across the country, but it was still a little disappointing.

"Sorry for confusing ya, but yes, Manhattan has a regional airport. You can get to Chicago from there; my brother went just this past summer."

"So…Manhattan to Chicago, Chicago to Manhattan?"

Kate looked down at her companion and nodded as that travel itinerary did make the most sense, assuming they could accomplish it. Glancing at the clock on a nearby wall she said, "It's just before noon now and-"

"Noon?" Rick groaned and rolled his head back against his pillow. "No wonder I'm starving!"

"Your stomach only thinks it's ten," Kate pointed out, thinking of the difference between Central and Pacific Time."

He gave her a pointed look. "My stomach has been through a lot."

Kate laughed, feeling the urge to smile for the first time in several hours. "Fair enough. But anyway, say we get on the road by one, that puts us in Manhattan around two-thirty. Maybe there's a five o'clock to Chicago. The flight will take…I don't know, give or take two hours? That's seven. There might be a later flight to New York…this is all assuming that the FAA actually lets us leave," she concluded her thought process with a bit of a grumble.

"They will," he promised, though his words were not enough to convince her. "But that all makes sense…even if there is no flight to New York late tonight, there would most definitely be one early tomorrow morning. Or maybe we'll have to make the whole trip tomorrow. That would be okay; we still have a few days 'til Christmas."

"No we don't," she corrected him. "It's now the twenty-third, remember?"

He pressed his lips together and hummed to himself. "Right, right…so only two days, then." Lifting up his left hand, he was able to brush his knuckles against the side of her arm despite a slightly awkward angle. "I am sorry, Kate; I know you want to get home and that's partially my-"

"No. no it's not." She assured him before he could shoulder any more guilt. She knew he hadn't wanted the plane to crash any more than she did, and his offer to allow her to fly home with him on a private plane had been sweet and so she would not be blaming him for their predicament—not even a little bit. "This just is what it is."

"Oh you two kids are so sweet!" The nurse gushed at them as she clasped her hands together and swung her hips side to side. "How long have you been married?"

Both Kate and Rick instantly rebutted.

"Wha—oh no we're—"

"No, we're not."

"-not married."

The woman's brow wrinkled as she gazed in between them. "Oh but I-"

"We're strangers—we just met on the plane," Rick informed her.

"Oh I'm sorry; my mistake."

Rick offered a small smile. "Don't worry about it."

Kate watched the nurse slink away, clearly a little embarrassed, and then turned to look down at Rick, who was examining the yellow gold ring on his left hand with a strange amount of curiosity of someone who had presumably been married several years. Even more strangely, he muttered something that she thought sounded like, "I should take this thing off anyway."

"What was that?"

"Nothing—nothing," he said quickly, though she didn't believe his comment could be dismissed so easily. "I…I was just thinking I should call Paula; she'll sort out the flights for us."

"Your wife?"

"No, no—my publicist." He clarified.

Not really knowing what a publicist did, Kate merely nodded and took a step away from his bed. "I think I'll go back to the waiting room. Maybe I can find that deputy to give us the all-clear to get out of here."

"Sounds good."

Kate nodded to him and then began making her way back towards the waiting room. Hopefully she could find the deputy and somehow get in touch with a representative of the FAA who could either interview them in person as soon as possible or would agree to do any discussions needed by phone. After all, what information could she or Rick provide that the plane's recording equipment would not be able to tell them? It wasn't as though they had a conversation with the pilot or flight attendant before the crash; they were completely in the dark. Besides, it was Christmastime. She could only hope the FAA would be sympathetic about that.

* * *

"So…this is Kansas." Castle sighed and leaned heavily against his crutch as he and his companion stood at the edge of the town square and observed their surroundings. After his stitches were completed and his leg was bandaged, he and his traveling companion were forced to wait an extra forty minutes at the hospital for the FAA representatives to arrive. Just when he was contemplating eating his gown so he wouldn't die of starvation, the men showed up for what turned out to be a seven minute interview. Despite inquiring once again about the condition of the pilot and flight attendant, they were refused information, but the FAA did take down all their phone numbers and promised to update them, though he didn't intend on holding his breath and waiting for their call.

When his kind nurse, a woman named Patty, heard his stomach growling across the room, she walked over to them and let them know that they could find a nice meal at the town's centrally located hot-spot, a diner called Mayberry's. As it was just a ten minute walk they decided not to wait for anyone to drive them. Though both Patty and Kate expressed concern about his leg, he assured them it would be fine, particularly since the lidocaine hadn't worn off yet.

The ten minute trek had been mostly through residential areas, but the weather was nice and, quite frankly, Castle was simply relieved to see sunlight again after their pitch-black trek through unknown terrain after the crash that morning. Though certainly more rural than he was used to, the streets they walked didn't seem that horribly atypical, but when they reached the town square and Castle decided he would not have been shocked to see a horse and buggy drive by he realized just how far from home they were.

"Yeah it's…different."

He hummed and hobbled around using his crutch to observe the area. From the street comer in front of City Hall he could see Mayberry's, a bank, a municipal building, and a church that looked like it hadn't been changed since 1875. Turning back to Kate he said, "I guess this is the exact opposite of what Dorothy thought when she landed in Oz."

She smiled softly. "Something like that."

Kate led the way to the diner, which actually had the façade of an old-timey saloon, as he hobbled behind her. She held the door open wide enough for him to slip through and he thanked her. Just two steps inside the diner, he was looking around the space to determine if there was a hostess who would seat them or if they were to seat themselves, when he suddenly realized the space full of around twenty-five people had gone almost entirely silent. With all eyes trained in his direction, Castle shifted his hand on the crutch and smiled weakly towards the crowd.

As a semi-famous author, that moment was far from the first time he'd captured the attention of an entire room. Generally, when he arrived at his book signings, dozens of fans—typically women—clapped and cheered, thrilled for his arrival. On occasion he might say a few words, though not always, but he would typically have their full attention. In those instances, he didn't mind the eyes of his adoring fans. In that moment, however, he was not entirely sure what the reaction would be towards two strangers who crash landed in their town.

"Oh my goodness," a woman thankfully dressed as a waitress gasped as she approached them. "You're them, aren't you—the ones from the plane crash."

"Ah." Castle glanced back at his companion, who appeared just as uncertain as he did, and then said, "y-yes; that's us."

"Oh my goodness—please, please come and sit. You both must be exhausted! And starved! Have you had anything to eat? What can we get you?"

"I, um," Castle hobbled backwards towards the two-seater table the waitress directed them to. He saw there was a menu on the table and smiled up at her. "Perhaps my friend and I could have just a few minutes?"

"Of course! Of course! I'll bring you some waters. Anything else?"

"Coffee," Kate said as though it was almost a reflex, which made Castle smile.

"I'll also have coffee."

The waitress nodded. "Of course, of course; coming right up!"

Though Castle tried to focus on his menu, it was slightly difficult knowing that every person in the room continued to stare at them. Their waitress returned almost immediately with steaming cups of coffee and as much as Castle wanted to dive right in, his stomach craved sustenance. He placed his order for the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy while Kate went for a turkey club sandwich.

Moments after their waitress hurried away, Castle's phone rang and he smiled when he saw the display. When he'd spoken to his publicist in the hospital she had been stunned at his story to say the least. She promised to do her best to get him a flight—quote—"back to civilization" and he hoped she'd pulled through, not just for his sake, but for Kate's.

"Paula, what've you got?"

"Not the best news, but not the worst," her nasal voice told him over the phone. "Jesus Rick, this close to Christmas you're lucky there are any seats available at all."

"Tell me about it," he huffed.

"Anyway, there are no available seats on flights to Chicago tonight—unless you want to go private again."

"Um, no, no." He gazed at Kate as he said, "We'll want to fly commercial, not private." Her eyes flared wide and then she nodded in agreement. He imagined she felt similarly about pressing their luck with another private plane so close to the crash.

"Well, there are two seats on the six thirty a.m. commuter out of Manhattan. The next available flight to New York after that would be a twelve forty out of Chicago, direct JFK.

"You checked Newark as well?"

"Nothing's available any earlier than that."

"Okay well…better book it." He sighed and skimmed his fingers against his chin. The flights weren't as ideal as he'd hoped, but at least they would definitely be home in time for Christmas Eve dinner.

"I need her—what's her name? Kate? I need her info to book the flight."

"Right, right." Castle pulled the phone away from his ear and held it out across the table. "Paula needs your info to book the flight."

She lifted up her hand, but slowly. "Oh I…you can just give me the information and I can call the airline and-"

"Kate please." He shook off her concern. "It's just easier this way."

She gave him a reluctant gaze so he smiled and held the device a little closer until she finally accepted it and he listened to her rattle off her full name, Katherine H. Beckett, and date of birth; she was twenty-eight, which was older than he would have guessed. Once this information had been relayed, she passed the phone back to him.

"Thanks Paula; you're the best," he said to her.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll book these flights and then send the details to…where the hell are you staying?"

"Oh, um." He paused, realizing for the first time that they needed a place to sleep that night. "I'm not sure…I'll get back to you. Just book the flights so we don't lose the seats. Please."

"Will do. Ciao."

By the time Rick pocketed the device their waitress was returning with their meals. He didn't hesitate to immediately bite into a piece of fried chicken and proclaim, "Oh my god, so good," while chewing as fast as he could. The chicken really was delicious, but he probably would have said the same to merely mediocre food at that point; he was just thrilled to be eating. He'd taken down nearly a full breast before he looked up and saw his companion demurely bite into one corner of her sandwich. He couldn't imagine she was any less ravenous than him, but yet she didn't seem excited by her meal. If anything, she just seemed sad, which he assumed had to do with the latest update on their travel plans.

With a sigh, he put down his chicken and reached out for a napkin to wipe both his hands and mouth. Dropping the napkin into his lap he said, "I'm sorry, Kate; I know this isn't what you wanted, but it-"

"No I…I'm fine." She promised before taking a sip of coffee. "We survived a plane crash that killed at least one other person—that's what we need to focus on. Everything else is just little details that won't matter in a few months, right?"

He nodded, appreciating her optimistic comment. "Exactly. But, we do need to make a plan for tonight. Since our flight is so early, it makes the most sense to stay in Manhattan, but we'll need a way to get there. Do you think—oh." He startled when he looked up to see their waitress hovering nearby.

"Just checking to see how things are," she said with a smile.

His expression mirrored hers. "Excellent thanks. I was wondering, though, could I ask you a question?"

"Of course!"

"We'll be flying out of the Manhattan airport tomorrow morning, but we'll need to get there tonight. Is there by chance a…taxi cab company in town?" He knew it was a long shot—more than a long shot, actually, but they had no other choice as he imagined Washington didn't have a rental car company either.

The waitress chuckled. "No, no nothing like that, but you dears don't have to worry. Just eat your lunch and we'll find someone to drive you to Manhattan."

"Oh," Kate began quickly, clearly about to protest, but he jumped in as well.

"No, no we—we don't want to bother anyone. Maybe a cab from Manhattan can come pick us up here?"

She waved her hand flippantly at them. "No, no, don't worry about that; just enjoy your meal. Let me know if you need anything else—it's all on the house."

"Oh no, we-"

Though Castle tried to protest, she cut him off again with, "You darlings have been through enough."

"I…okay…" he managed, not sure what else to say. Looking at Kate, she appeared equally as baffled.

A minute later, after their overly friendly waitress had drifted off to service another table, Kate leaned in and asked in a hushed voice, "So…if Manhattan has an airport, it probably has at least one hotel, right?"

He bobbed his head. "Seems a safe assumption. I'll call Paula and have her check."

"No, no; just wait until she calls you back with the-"

"Excuse me."

Kate was interrupted by a middle-aged man approaching their table. He clasped his hands in front of him and said, "Don't mean to bother ya'll, but I'd be happy to take you to Manhattan this afternoon. My brother lives there and I wouldn't mind visiting."

"I…um…" Kate stammered before meeting Castle's eye, clearly unsure of what to say.

Swooping in he said, "Well, sir, that's a very kind offer, but we're not quite sure what our plans are yet."

The man lifted his hand to adjust his baseball cap and said, "Well, m' name's Bud if you change your mind."

Castle nodded. "Thank you, Bud; we'll let you know." Then, as Bud walked away, he turned to Kate and smiled. "Midwestern kindness—gotta love it. New Yorkers wouldn't have looked at us twice."

"Oh, they're definitely looking at us," Kate said in a bit of a sing-song tone, thought I was still quiet.

Gazing around the diner, he took note she was indeed correct; most eyes were still on them. Humming to himself, he turned back to his plate and said, "Forget Dorothy—we might as well be little green men."

She huffed into her sandwich. "Tell me about it."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Standing in the lobby of the Holiday Inn nearest the Kansas State University campus, Kate finally felt as though her life was beginning to return to normal after the upheaval of the prior twelve hours. True, she never expected to spend any part of her break from work at a hotel—particularly not one in a state she'd never visited before—but at least she and Rick were moving steadily towards a resolution to their predicament: they had a place to stay, they had plane tickets; they had a plan.

Shortly after finishing their complimentary meal at the diner, she and Rick did end up taking up Bud's offer to drive them to Manhattan as they didn't feel they had another option. They waited around for almost another hour while Bud walked home, informed his wife of his plans, and then returned with his truck to pick them up. Though Kate had been entirely skeptical about how awkward or uncomfortable their ninety-minute journey would be with a total stranger at the wheel, she soon found out that Bud was a rather interesting character. He had lived in Washington for his entire life, so he offered up plenty of stories about the locals, and then the further he drove he began telling them about Manhattan and how it was the home to KSU, which was why he didn't frequent it too much as there were "too many college kids."

When Bud's truck finally pulled into the Holiday Inn's parking lot, Rick had attempted to compensate their driver with a crisp hundred dollar bill, but Bud refused stating that he truly just wanted to help them out after their ordeal. Both Kate and her companion thanked him profusely before entering the hotel and acquiring two rooms, both of which Kate paid for. Rick balked when she pulled out her credit card, but just like Bud, she refuted his complains. He was paying for her plane ticket and thus the least she could do was cover his room, even if eighty-nine dollars barely put a dent in what she felt she owed him.

When the polite desk attendant handed over their respective room keys, the duo made their way towards the bank of elevators in the lobby. As Rick still used his crutch, Kate continued to carry his bag all the way up to their rooms, which were conveniently located across the hall from one another. She carried his bag into his room and placed it on the end of the bed as he requested. "I really appreciate your help, Kate," he said as she began to walk back towards the hallway.

Giving a little shrug she said, "It's no problem at all." All things considered, carrying his duffel bag hardly seemed an inconvenience in the slightest.

"Hey, um, before you go—and you can totally feel free to say no to this—but I was just thinking that since I'm the only person that you know and you're the only person I know—would you like to have dinner?"

Her brow wrinkled at his suggestion. "We just ate lunch," she pointed out and it was a big lunch at that; he had consumed his fried chicken so voraciously she was shocked he hadn't eaten the bones too.

He clicked his tongue at her. "That was four hours ago! Besides I'm still trying to make up for not eating for…days."

"Days!?"

"You know what I mean!"

Kate fought the urge to roll her eyes as she very much doubted Rick had gone more than twelve or fourteen hours without eating, which was hardly a scandalous amount of time, though she kind of saw his point; she had been very hungry by the time they reached Mayberry's. As for his invitation, she saw absolutely no point in declining. She had more-or-less resolved to the fact that they would be completing the remainder of their journey together—not that she minded. Her first impressions of him had definitely been incorrect; he was a more than suitable travel companion, especially since their travels would last barely a day more.

"Sure, Rick; I'll eat dinner with you, but I want to clean up first."

He bobbed his head. "Absolutely. Meet you in the hall in an hour?"

"An hour." She repeated, then she exited his room and walked into hers, bound for the thing she desired most: a nice, long, hot shower.

* * *

"Well, here's to…what should we toast to?" Rick gazed around his beer to look at her with a curious eyebrow raised.

Kate lifted her bottle and mirrored his actions. As she could not think of a better toast off the top of her head she said, "Um…surviving the past twenty-four hours?"

"I'll definitely drink to that." He clinked his bottle against hers and then they both drank.

Kate placed her beer back down on the table and gazed around the restaurant looking for their server. As they had no real means of transportation available to them, she and her companion had agreed to dine in the Houlihan's restaurant inside of their hotel. She generally tried to avoid chain restaurants due to the fact that their food tended to fall into the quantity-over-quality category, but being in close proximity to a major university meant their options were chains or dive bars and so she hadn't hesitated to agree to the most conveniently located of all.

On that Christmas Eve-Eve evening the restaurant was mostly empty, which didn't surprise her, though she did hope it would improve the quality of their service. Given that she couldn't even spot their waitress in the small dining area that probably was not going to be the case. Huffing out a breath, Kate merely turned back to the menu in front of her and reached out for her drink once more.

"So…have you ever been to a Houlihan's before?"

A light chuckle escaped Kate's lips when Rick attempted to pronounce the name of the restaurant in a dramatic manner, but only ended up sounding ridiculous. Looking up, she said, "Nope. Have you?"

"No. I don't usually go to chains. Growing up in New York spoils us, I think. There are so many great, independent restaurants to choose from. San Francisco would be similar, I imagine—plenty of great food there."

She nodded as she definitely agreed with everything he said. "Yeah, especially Chinese."

"One of my favorites."

Their conversation was interrupted by the waitress finally returning and asking, "Ya'll ready to order?" while also popping her chewing gum. As the girl was clearly college-aged and thus in all likelihood a KSU student trying to make ends meet, Kate chose to ignore the gum popping and order without hesitation.

"I'll take the chicken Caesar salad, please."

"Baby back ribs for me," Rick added.

The young waitress took both their menus without even bothering to give them a courtesy smile before walking off towards the kitchen.

"Well, I know this definitely isn't the travel scenario either of us wanted, but on the bright side at least we'll both get to sleep in real beds tonight and not cramped plane seats."

Kate gestured towards him with her beer bottle and acknowledged, "True, but honestly I think my favorite part of the last forty-eight hours was the shower I took; I could have stayed in there forever." In all the drama and fear for survival, she hadn't actually thought much about showering until they were on their way towards the hotel and then it became her singular fixation. Not only was she anxious to stand beneath the warm spray because of the frigid temperatures outside, but she was eager to wash away the stress and drama with a fresh and (literally) clean slate.

The writer grunted. "Ah, yeah; I'm a little jealous to be honest."

Her brow wrinkled momentarily. "Why would—oh shit! Your leg!" She gasped when she came to the full realization of why he would not be to shower that evening.

"Yeah, can't get the stiches wet but it's fine; I can wait until we get home tomorrow."

She frowned, feeling bad for not only inadvertently rubbing it in, but that he couldn't clean himself after their ordeal. She would not have been very happy were their situations reversed. "Maybe we could rig something up that would keep your leg dry but-"

"No, no." He waived his hand dismissively in her direction. "I appreciate the thought, but it's fine. Just let me know if I start to smell too bad."

She laughed when he winked at her. "Will do."

"So…." Rick's voice drifted off for a moment as though he was trying to think of something to say. Then, suddenly, he snapped his fingers and then pointed to her, "Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you—have you ever been to Kansas before, or is this one state you can check off your list."

She shook he head. "Never been. And let me guess—you're trying to visit all fifty states?"

"Duh!" he replied. "With all my book tours, I've been to thirty-seven, but this trip makes thirty-eight!"

"Really? You've never been to Kansas City on a book tour?"

He smiled knowingly. "Kansas City in Missouri."

She laughed, having forgotten that the city crossed into two states. "Well, at least there's one bright side to our plane crash."

"You mean other than surviving?"

"Obviously."

He smiled. "But you make a valid point—I always like crossing states off my list—and countries. I find it fascinating to travel and experience new things, which is why I bring my daughter with me every chance we get, but it's not always practical with school. I did tell her that one summer we're going to road trip to California and back."

Kate hummed. "And what did she say to that?" she asked, knowing she wasn't always keen on vacations with her parents, especially if they weren't to "fun" locations like Disney World.

"She wisely recommended that we wait until she has her license so she can share the driving. I had intended to do it while she was in high school still, but if she wants to share we'll probably have to wait until she has a senior license—bear in mind at this point the thought of her driving at all gives me gray hair."

"How old is she?"

"Twelve."

Kate nodded and waved her hand flippantly. "Ah, you've got plenty of time."

"Sadly, I don't, but that's okay; I'm thoroughly enjoying watching her blossom into a young adult."

Kate couldn't help but smile in the reflection of the man beaming over his daughter. Before meeting him, she had known virtually nothing about Rick Castle as a person. Her mother had read his books for years and thus she'd started reading under her encouragement and admitted to enjoying almost all of his works to the point where she read many multiple times. She had seen a few interviews with him on talk shows, but she really only recalled him speaking about his books, and thus hadn't even known he was married or had a child until after meeting him. Once again, though, she was glad he was proving her first impressions very, very wrong.

As they patiently waited for their food to arrive, Kate thought back to earlier that afternoon when she'd finally been able to connect over the phone with her boyfriend back in San Francisco. Naturally, he first expressed relief that she was physically fine after the entire ordeal. He then asked about her plans to continue her trip and she told him that she and the man she was traveling with had obtained seats on a flight to New York via Chicago the following day. Chris had immediately gone very quiet and, after several seconds, asked, "You're still traveling with him? Is that…safe?" Her initial reaction had been to laugh for being unsafe had never once crossed into her mind.

"He's a famous author, Chris," she had replied. "What's he gonna do?" Though Chris went on to list several unsavory ideas, Kate told him he was being ridiculous. She had never once felt unsafe around Rick—quite the opposite in fact. If she had been alone when the plane crashed, she would have been terrified to wander around in the pitch black in search of help not knowing where in the United States she had landed. Fortunately Rick was with her, and his sweet sentiments about his daughter merely reinforced the fact that she had no worries about traveling with him for an additional twenty-four hours.

By the time their meal was delivered, Kate's stomach was growling and she almost wished she'd ordered something more than just a salad, but then she decided that maybe on her way back to her room she'd treat herself to a candy bar from the vending machine. After everything she'd been through in the prior day, she had definitely earned some chocolate.

For the most part, other than some conversations about the food, and Rick asking if she wanted a second beer because he was getting one, their meal was silent. Kate didn't mind this as tiredness was beginning to replace hunger the fuller her belly became. When the waitress brought their check she once again insisted on paying and purposely ignored how his upper lip twitched while she slipped her credit card into the black receipt wallet left at their table by the waitress.

"I'm starting to wonder how early is too early for bed," she joked as they waited for the waitress to bring back her card.

"After the day we had? Nothing is too early, but actually I was thinking about going for a little walk and wondered if you wanted to join me?"

"Walk?" She asked with notable confusion in her voice. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

He blinked slowly at her. "I'm fine—and it's just a little walk. They said it's only three blocks away."

"What is?"

He smiled knowingly. "Well you'll have to come with me to find out."

* * *

"Oh well… that's slightly anticlimactic." Castle huffed out a breath when he and Kate came to a stop at the corner of Freemont and Fourteenth Streets. When he'd ventured down to the lobby earlier that evening to inquire about toiletries the hotel might be able to provide, he heard two people talking about the wonderful Christmas display at the Manhattan City Park just a few blocks away. The manger scene and half a dozen multi-colored trees surrounding it were certainly cute, but he didn't think he'd go right to the descriptor of "wonderful." Then again, he was used to being in larger cities, so he supposed that to the small town crowd this display was very nice.

"And…what were you expecting?"

He looked over and shrugged. "An amazing seasonal display?"

"Ah." She responded flatly.

Huffing again, he hobbled a bit closer to the display, hoping there was more (there wasn't) and then ultimately walked over and sat down rather hard on a park bench. When Kate sat beside him, he griped, "I don't know… I guess I was just hoping for something really spectacular that would get me back into the Christmas spirit."

"You mean after the plane crash?"

"Ah no…" While the terror of their plane falling out of the sky did not add to his festive mood in any way, his spirit had been damped long before that. If anything, the crash had provided a very temporary distraction, but now that the drama was mostly over, he was back to his depressing reality. Resting his crutch against the side of the bench, he clasped his hands together and rested his forearms on his thighs. "No, actually…my wife is leaving me."

He heard Kate gasp. "Oh god! I'm so sorry!"

"Thanks. Maybe it's inappropriate of me to bring it up since we just met so I apologize in advance but…" He huffed out a breath and dropped his chin to his chest. Unfortunately, spilling his internal feelings to a practical stranger was a little inappropriate and something he wouldn't have normally done, but he felt it all bubbling inside him and he was going crazy not letting it out. The only person he'd interacted this much with since receiving the message was the Black Pawn junior agent traveling with him at the time, and she'd been too young and doe-eyed to dump on; at least Kate seemed far worldlier.

Leaning back against the bench, he tuned his head to look at his companion. "She left me a voicemail three days ago. Who does that? Gina never been warm and fuzzy, but we've been married for two years, together for almost four. Who just says…hey, I'm not coming back after Christmas—she went to Vermont with friends…one of whom is probably her lover," he added with no small amount of bitterness.

Kate arched an eyebrow. "She was cheating on you?"

"I don't have official confirmation, but I've suspected for a while." Though the frequency of their intimacy had been on a steady decline, as soon as Gina stopped attempting to give him plausible excuses for why she was rejecting his advances, he began to suspect. Then, he picked up on a few other clues and since he was used to the signs from his first wife, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together.

"That is…horrible," Kate said with notable disgust. "I'm sorry. To do that at Christmastime, to do that to a child…"

"Oh no—well, not really," he added quickly, not wanting her to get the completely wrong idea. "Alexis is my daughter from my first marriage."

"Oh."

"But I have full custody so…it'll still be…"

"I can only imagine." She let a beat go by before reaching out and giving his shoulder a squeeze. "I am very sorry to hear that, Rick, but I hope you and Alexis can still have a good Christmas, despite your wife's choices."

"Thank you; we will certainly try. Christmas is generally my favorite holiday, so I have some tricks up my sleeve…just need to rejuvenate my spirit." He sighed, rubbed his fingers over his stubble-covered jaw, and thought for a moment before an idea hit him. "Hey I know—why don't you tell me one of your favorite Christmas memories?"

"Oh, I don't know." She folded her hands in her lap and turned her head away from him.

Ever persistent, he continued, "Yeah, sure. Doesn't have to be anything too personal if you don't want, but I'm sure you have some good ones. Favorite holiday food? Maybe something a grandparent made? Or—oh—best present you ever got?"

"Oh." She turned back to him with a soft smile. "I got ice sakes for Christmas when I was eight; I remember being very excited about those."

He grinned at her. "Perfect—tell me more."

A light laugh escaped her lips. "Um…I don't know how much more there is. I remember seeing a skating competition on TV and becoming instantly obsessed. I don't think it was the Olympics….just another televised competition, but there was a girl in a yellow and lime green outfit that for some reason eight year old me just thought was _amazing_ ," she empathized; he grinned wider. "And, I dunno…I just wanted to skate."

"Did you take lessons?"

"Yes, for a year before I moved on to other things, but I'm still a decent skater. Actually my—" She stopped abruptly, cleared her throat and then quickly said, "my mom and I used to go," in one rushed breath.

Though at face value her words were not alarming, the hairs at the back of Castle's neck prickled from the way she said them and how closed-off her body language instantly became. For the span of thirty seconds he waited for her to say something else, but she didn't. She merely continued to keep her hands folded tightly together and kept her face turned away from him. Just when he was about to ask her if she was okay, she squeaked out, "Maybe we should walk back?" in a tone that clearly indicated heavy emotion.

Rounding his shoulders along with a sigh, Castle said, "Kate I'm sorry; I never wanted to upset you."

She glanced over at him and shook her head. "You didn't," she said, though even in the dim light from the street lamps he could still see the glistening of tears in her eyes.

"Oh…well if you want to tell me about it, you can feel free. You don't have to, but if you want, I'm here to listen," he said, having no problem returning the kindness she had allowed him.

She sniffed and shook her head. "No, it's fine I…I was just thinking about my mom and how…how we'll probably never go skating again…probably never do anything together again…"

"Oh, Kate." Castle's heart instantly broke. So the reason Kate's mother was in the hospital was not only serious, but grave as well. No wonder she'd wanted to get home so quickly! And now they were stuck in Kansas. True, they would be home inside a day, but from the way it sounded that was one less day Kate would get to spend with her mother. "I'm so sorry…"

She shook her head and gave a little shrug. "It's just…I know none of us want to talk about it—she doesn't, I know my father doesn't, and I don't really either, but the reality is…the reality is this will most likely be our last Christmas together—the three of us—and that's just…just a really hard reality to f-face."

When Castle heard her voice cracking on the last word he felt as though nails were raking right over his heart and soul; how horrible! Though he imagined the prospect of losing a parent would never be easy no matter the time of year, but to be facing such a heartbreak at Christmastime? And when she was living all the way across the country? Plus, she was still so young.

In the wake of such heart wrenching news, Castle began to feel guilt seep over him for sharing his story about his soon-to-be-ex-wife's rudeness. Yes, Gina's behavior was inappropriate, but no one was dying; they would all be okay eventually.

"God, Kate; I'm so sorry, so, so sorry—here I was blathering on about my wife and-"

"No, no, please." She sniffed back tears and pushed her hand towards him dismissively. "Don't do that—you absolutely have a right to be upset. I just…it's a hard realization, and then with all these travel problems…"

He nodded. "Of course; I totally get it. You don't want to miss any more time. Has…has she been sick a while?"

Kate rubbed the back of her hand beneath her nose. "Yes and no. It's been on and off for almost eight years now."

Castle rubbed his fingers over his chin. Though he didn't want to speculate, it sounded to him like Kate's mother could possibly be suffering from cancer, or perhaps another ongoing disease; how horrible for her and her family. Though they had only met, he wished he could do something to help them, to help her; after all they'd been together it only seemed right. "That must be very hard; I'm so sorry to hear that. If there's anything I can do…"

"No, no it's… it's getting cold," she announced as she stood suddenly and took two steps back towards the direction from which they came. "We should get back."

Not wanting to push her into conversation that would only further upset her, he reached out for his crutch and used it to help him stand off the bench. "Okay; we'll go back."

Their ten minute walk back to the hotel was completely silent, as was their elevator ride to the second floor. As they made their way towards their rooms at the end of the hall, Castle began to feel tiredness seep into his bones, and realized that in the prior forty eight hours he hadn't had more than three or four hours sleep; no wonder he felt so worn out at such an early hour. Even further surprising him was that their journey in San Francisco had been just one day earlier; with everything they'd been through that was a very difficult concept to believe.

"You know," he said to her, "I just kind of realized—we met around twenty-four hours ago; it's only been a day."

She quirked her lips in a brief smile and then commented, "Hell of a day."

"Hell of a day," he echoed.

"Well, goodnight, Rick," she said as they began to separate to enter their separate rooms.

He nodded to her. "Until tomorrow, Kate."

* * *

 **A/N** : thanks you to those of you who have taken the time to review - i appreciate that

Only 3 updates left after this :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Well…here's hoping this one doesn't crash," Castle sighed, mostly to himself, as he and Kate stood in line to board the commuter plane to Chicago.

Evidently overhearing him, Kate smacked his arm with the back of her hand and scolded, "Don't say that!"

He shrugged, still grumpy from his four-thirty a.m. wakeup call. He had been in bed by 8:30 and asleep shortly thereafter. Those eight hours should have been enough to satisfy him, but they were not. He needed at least eight more. Besides, four-thirty was a miserable time to be awake no matter what time zone he was in.

Upon arriving at the airport, Castle was appalled to see that there was exactly one other individual in line to go through security at that ungodly hour. He immediately began balking to Kate, who had suggested they arrive at least one hour before boarding (instead of his suggestion of fifteen minutes). She merely shrugged and said she had no way of foreseeing the future at an airport she'd never been to before and he'd continued to pout as they waited for the airport coffee shop to open at six. Castle knew he should be in a good mood since they were finally on the last legs of their journey and he would be seeing his daughter in half a day's time, but in addition to the early wakeup call annoying him, he'd spent several extra minutes in the shower staring down at his wedding ring wondering whether or not it would be appropriate to throw it off the Brooklyn Bridge once he arrived home.

"It is true that getting into two plane crashes in two days would be astronomically unlikely but-"

"Then perhaps," Kate interjected with a look that bordered on a glare, "we shouldn't talk about things that are that unlikely."

Castle knew she had a point—particularly since he didn't want any of the other passengers to hear his concerns—so he pressed his lips tightly together and waited patiently to board the plane, which only took about five minutes due to how few passengers there were. He and Kate were seated in the very last row which unfortunately for him meant the space was quite cramped. He sat on the aisle, but the room was still very limited.

While he tried to situate himself, he glanced over at Kate and saw she'd pulled her book out of her bag and smiled to himself, thinking of a day and a half earlier when they sat in nearly the exact same position, except that time he wasn't going to bribe her with cash so he could swap seats. In hindsight, that had been quite foolish, though he definitely would have handed over the money had she agreed to switch. Still, it would be a lighter moment in the tale of their trip from San Francisco to New York when he later told it to his family.

Fortunately, unlike the last time they were seated together, that plane did back away from the gate and begin to taxi towards the runway. He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat as the flight attendant gave her speech, thinking that maybe he could take a ninety minute nap while they flew north. He pushed out a long, slow breath through his nose as he heard the engines rev and didn't think about the last moments he spent on a plane as it plummeted to earth until the plane had begun to climb to its cruising altitude and he felt a sudden jolt.

Gasping, Castle's eyes popped open and he instinctively shot his right hand out towards his right side, where it came in contact with Kate's forearm. He squeezed perhaps a bit more firmly than he should have as the plane bumped along, but within fifteen seconds it passed through the rough air and the ride was smooth once more. Only then did Castle look to his right and see that Kate was eyeing him, so he quickly pulled his hand back.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have—sorry."

"It's fine." She promised with a small smile. Then, she glanced out the window and turned back to him saying, "Say goodbye to Kansas."

"Right." He let out a breathy sound and tried to relax back in his seat despite the fact that his heart was still racing. Without much thought, he placed his right arm on the armrest and shut his eyes once more. Their plane bumped through the air again, but that time he didn't have an adverse reaction; he simply curled his fingertips around the end of the arm rest and waited. Two bumps later, the captain came on the PA system, apologized for the rough air, and said they would be out of it soon. Castle appreciated it as he helped him relax further. It wasn't until several minutes later that he realized his arm was actually resting up against Kate's.

Opening his eyes, Castle gazed at the space between their seats and observed the woman beside him. She sat with her book open in her lap and her elbow braced at the side of the arm rest, hence their touching sleeves. As she had been sitting that way for several moments, he could only assume she didn't mind that their arms were touching and the more he thought about it, he didn't either.

If one was to rank the level of intimacy two people of the opposite gender could share, touching arms while seated side-by-side would have barely been a notch on any scale. It did, however, cause Castle to think about their situation and how close they had become. No lines had been crossed—far from it, he believed—but they had experienced a lot of emotional upheaval together, which naturally drew them closer, but was that enough to explain just how comfortable he felt around her in less than two days' time?

As he considered himself a people person by nature, Castle believed he did tend to warm up to others rather quickly. He could be dropped in a room of strangers at any given time or in any given place and have no problem befriending all of them assuming they weren't openly cruel to him in return. The comfort level he had with Kate felt a level beyond that, though, and the must-know-the-end-of-the-story side of his brain craved a concrete reason why.

"Doesn't it feel longer than a day and a half?"

Kate lifted her head and looked at him. "What?"

"Since we met—does it feel longer to you than a day and a half? What I mean is…I don't know if I can explain it, but it just feels like we've known each other for a while. Doesn't it? Or…or am I just sounding crazy…might be the sleep deprivation…" His voice dropped off when her brow began to crinkle. Maybe it was in his head. Maybe he was delirious and seeing things that weren't actually there. Maybe she couldn't wait to get off the plane in New York and never think about him again.

Just when his insecurities had almost consumed his brain, she smiled, closed her book, and shifted her body in her seat so that she could more easily look at him. "No, no; you're not crazy. It definitely feels longer than a day and a half, which I think is probably just because we hadn't slept very much and we went through a traumatic incident, but also…" She paused and stared at the seat in front of her for a moment before looking back to him. "I was thinking about it last night…I can't put my finger on it, but there's just something about you… I usually take a while to warm up to strangers—my parents always said I was born skeptical—but, last night talking to you about my mom didn't feel weird."

Castle let out a relieved breath and then nodded to her. "Glad to hear it. But then perhaps we should try to get to know each other a little bit more?"

"Okay…"

"We don't have to," he said quickly at her skeptical-sounding tone.

"No, it's fine you just…you got very enthusiastic just then."

He shrugged. "Must be the espresso kicking in. Plus, I like getting to know people—nature of my profession."

She hummed and folded her hands in her lap, looking contemplative for a moment before asking, "Did you always want to be a writer?"

He nodded eager to answer one of his favorite questions. "Since high school, yeah. I'd been writing stories for years, trying to get better and better, but that's when I finally started to…well, try and be good enough to publish."

"Must have worked since you got published so young. College, right? I…remember that from an interview…"

His chest puffed out subconsciously at the knowledge that she had watched interviews that he'd done; she really must have been more than a casual reader. "Yeah, I was in my second year of college when my manuscript was accepted. How about you – always want to be a lawyer?"

She gave an embarrassed little nod. "Actually, yes. My parents both are so it was just how I grew up—wanted to be like mom and dad."

"That's sweet. Do your parents work at the same firm?"

"No—they used to when they first met, but they haven't since I was…twelve or so. That's when my dad started teaching law."

He arched his brow; how intriguing! He imagined her parents had an interesting back story and hoped to learn it one day, but for that moment he was enraptured and wanted to hear all about her—everything. "Fascinating. Tell me more."

She laughed and turned her eyes back to the closed book in her lap. Dancing her fingers down the spine she said, "Um…there isn't really much to tell? We're very boring."

"I highly doubt that. Can I ask you something else, then?"

"Okay."

"Have you read all my books?"

She barked out a laugh. "What?"

"Have you read all my books?" He repeated his question figuring he already knew the answer, but wanted the confirmation.

"I have…"

His smile grew wider. "I see. More than once?"

A rose color crept into the edges of her cheeks. "Some of them."

"Interesting. Would you then say you classify yourself as a super-fan?"

"What!?" she half-laughed, half-gasped.

As their trip had not contained very many reasons to smile, Castle wanted to keep the momentum going. "It's a simple question, Kate."

Her right eyebrow arched. "You mean because clearly there is no middle ground between casual reader who has read one or two books and super-fan?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "Arguably."

"Argu—you're insane!" She proclaimed before making a show of turning away from him and opening her book once more.

"Hey!" he protested immediately. "You didn't answer the question."

She ignored him but for to say, "I'm going to read now."

Castle said nothing else; he settled back into his seat, shut his eyes, and tried to fall asleep, but the smile was still on his face when they landed in Chicago.

* * *

After ending her phone call with her mother, Kate slipped her phone back into her bag, folded her arms in her lap, and leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. All things considered, their conversation had been good. Her mother's voice had sounded strong and she had told her all about what she had planned for that night and the following day insofar as their Christmas celebrations. Kate did look forward to all of those things; however, she did so with a heavy heart, knowing what lie ahead.

"Hey."

Kate looked up to see her companion returning with a newspaper tucked under one arm while he cradled a coffee cup and a small paper bag in one hand while still using his crutch with the other. She instinctively reached out and took the cup and bag from him so he could get situated in the seat beside her and he thanked her. He had disappeared almost immediately after they disembarked from the plane stating that he wanted to use the bathroom and get something to eat. He offered to get something for her as well, but she refused, wanting to call her parents as soon as she could.

"Did you get ahold of your mom?" Castle asked. He trapped his coffee cup between his knees and plunged his hand down into the paper bag to reveal what appeared to be a bagel, egg, and cheese sandwich.

"Yeah, I talked to her."

"How's she feeling? Good?"

Kate nodded. "She sounded good. She, um, she was actually released from the hospital yesterday morning, which is great, but she still has to go to dialysis. She was on her way there as we finished the call, but she made sure to tell me she'd take a nap when she's done so she'd be awake by the time I get home."

While still chewing on a big bite of his bagel, he asked, "Dialysis?"

"Yeah for her—"

"Kidneys; I know." He finished for her. "My first wife's grandmother was going through that when we met. It's a rough schedule to keep."

Kate bobbed her head. As she had been on the other side of the country, she hadn't fully experienced it, but she knew it was a constant schedule for her mother, and her father, to handle. "Yeah she goes four or five days a week now. It's…it's been hard."

"How long's she been doing that?"

"Little more than a year. She, um… eight years ago she was attacked—mugging gone wrong. She was stabbed several times," Kate confessed. Normally, she would have never told a stranger about the real root cause of her mother's illness. Hell, even Chris didn't know all of it, but as they'd established on the plane a few hours earlier: Rick was no ordinary stranger.

Given what they'd been through together, it made perfect sense that they felt like they had known each other more than a day and a half, particularly since she could hardly believe their crazy journey had only begun a day and a half earlier! Throughout her whole life Kate had needed to feel incredibly close to any individual she opened up to emotionally. She needed to trust that person completely, to make sure they weren't going to use what information she shared with them against her or for any malice. She wasn't sure she trusted Castle quite on that level, but she did feel very comfortable with him.

Kate knew that at least in part she was fueled to be open with him because he had been open with her. Hearing about his wife's infidelity and choice to end their marriage would have been sad enough, but the manner in which she chose to convey her message had been cruel and heartbreaking. Though Rick had initially thought speaking with her about his situation was inappropriate, and maybe it was a little bit, but Kate also understood why someone in his situation would feel the urge to talk about it with the nearest individual. Perhaps that was in part why she chose to talk with him about her mother's illness; she just needed to talk it through with someone.

"God—was this in New York?" Rick asked, referring to her mother's attack.

"Yeah, near Hell's Kitchen."

A grimace crossed his face. "Rough neighborhood."

"Yeah; she was visiting a client near there and then…well, anyway, she barely survived. She spent months in and out of the hospital, ended up needing one of her kidneys removed because it was so damaged. Took her over a year to get back to a good place, and even then she had digestive issues because of the damage to her intestines. A few years back she started to get sick again. They don't know why…could have been genetic, could have been the stress on her one remaining kidney. Anyway, she's…she's been going downhill a bit quicker than they predicted and…living out in San Francisco…it's hard, because everything falls to my dad and I just…I'm sorry." She turned away from him as her voice cracked with emotion. The last thing she wanted to do was cry in the middle of the O'Hare airport, but she hadn't quite realized how many feelings she was bottling up until they began to tumble out.

"No, no—don't apologize. I can't imagine how hard this is for you and your family. I mean…I completely freak out when Alexis gets the flu and this much more than that."

Despite the serious situation, Kate did manage a small smile. "Thanks. I just…I just want to get home, you know?"

"Of course; luckily, you'll be there in just a few hours—oh, speaking of. Look what I found."

He placed the newspaper down into her lap and told her what section to turn to. She quickly rifled through and was confused for a moment until she saw a headline in the bottom right hand corner that made her gasp aloud.

 _Pilot Killed in Crash; One Other Seriously Injured_

"God," she commented. So that was what the deputy couldn't tell them: their pilot had been killed and it was the flight attendant who was injured.

Kate continued to read the article, but it was so small it barely gave any information away other than what she already knew: two passengers survived with minor injuries and the FAA was still investigating the cause of the crash. Kate wondered if they would ever find out the true story of what happened before looking back to her companion, who wore a solemn expression.

"I wonder…do you think maybe that's why we crashed? Something happened—like he had a heart attack—and that's why we went down?"

Kate shrugged as she had no answer to such a question. "I suppose that's possible, though it did seem like he tried to land the plane as best he could so I don't think he was dead before we hit the ground. Or maybe he was and that flight attendant did what she could as a co-pilot."

He huffed out a breath. "Yeah. Maybe. Hopefully we'll find out someday."

"Yeah…" Though Kate understood the mindset of wanting to find out, she felt more neutrally about it. Even if they knew the reason, it wouldn't change the outcome. They had been lucky enough to survive, so maybe they needed to take that as a blessing and simply move on with their lives.

* * *

Stepping out onto the busy, crowded sidewalk in front of JFK Airport, Castle couldn't help but smile; they had finally made it home— _finally_. He couldn't wait to get back to his apartment, hug his daughter, shower, and then settle into a delicious pre-Christmas meal. Well, maybe delicious was a bit of an ambitious hope if his mother was cooking, but at least it would be a proper meal and after an entire day of airport food, he was definitely looking forward to it.

"C'mon; this way." He called over his shoulder to his companion, who still graciously carried his luggage. The fact that she still insisted upon toting his bag made him even more confident in his decision to provide her the gift of a luxurious ride home. That had been a last minute decision in the airport when speaking with Paula before boarding their plane to New York, but he was glad he'd done it; it only seemed right.

When they reached the appropriate stand for his town car, he gave his name and was immediately ushered forward by the attendant. Kate followed dutifully and held out his bag, which he took with a thank you, and then he gestured to the next car in line. "It'll take you wherever you want to go, which is your parent's place, I'm assuming, but I didn't have the address so you can just tell the driver."

"O-oh." She appeared a little startled as she glanced between the black town car and him several times. "You…you didn't have to—I was just going to get a cab."

He smiled. "But now you don't have to. Merry Christmas, Kate," he told her, though unexpectedly he felt his heart sink with the words. They seemed so…final. After everything they had experienced together over the prior two days it almost didn't make sense that they would part, never to see one another again. Just as he was thinking how to ask for her phone number without making it seem as though he was trying to rebound from his failed marriage before it was even over—with a woman who he knew to be in a relationship, no less—he was caught off guard by a peculiar expression crossing her face as she echoed his sentiments.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing—I should just-"

"Kate." He cut off her protests gently. "Is there something else?"

Her teeth grazed her bottom lip and she twisted her hands around the strap of her duffel bag. "Well, I…I mean you've done so much for me, I don't feel I have a right to ask you for anything more, but I….well the thing is: my mother is actually a bigger fan of your books than I am. She's the one who got me to read them in the first place. And I was…well I was hoping if it's not a terrible imposition would you maybe be able to sign one for her?"

He let out a light laugh at how apologetic and uncertain she sounded over something that he would not consider an imposition at all. "You made it sound like you were going to ask me to show up at your place dressed as Santa or something."

"Wha—no. No. Why would I—no."

He grinned at how flustered she sounded and then casually held out his hand, palm up. "Let me see your phone please."

She dug in her bag for a moment before passing over the device. He quickly made his way to the contacts screen and entered his number under the moniker "Castle" before handing it back to her. "When are you going back to San Francisco?"

"I fly out the twenty-eight."

He nodded. "Then call me the day after Christmas and we'll set something up."

Kate clutched the phone tightly to her chest and appeared visibly relieved. "Thank you—thank you so much. For—for everything."

"Please." He waived his hand flippantly, for he hadn't even thought twice about any of the kindnesses he paid her. Balancing as best he could on his crutch, he stretched out his free arm and tugged her into a brief embrace made slightly awkward by the luggage they held, but it served its purpose as being the end to their temporary parting of ways.

"Merry Christmas, Kate."

"Merry Christmas, Rick." She smiled and then stepped away, turning her back only when she reached the front of the waiting car. Then, he turned to the car he stood beside and mirrored her actions, climbing inside and providing the driver with his address. He was definitely glad to be home, but also very happy that he would be seeing Kate Beckett again in just a few days; anything else just wouldn't have been right.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"…and then we got on the plane to come here, and that was pretty much it." Kate concluded her tale of the prior forty-eight hours with a little shrug. She sat on one side of the dining table in her parent's apartment while her mother sat beside her and her father across from her; both of their jaws hanging open at the harrowing and unexpected tale.

Finally, after over thirty seconds of silence her mother finally said, "Oh, Katie—that's…I don't even know what to say!" Joanna looked over at her husband for his opinion.

"She's right—it's unbelievable what you went through. Why didn't you tell us when you called? About the crash, I mean."

She gave a little shrug. "Didn't want you to get upset or worry especially since I wasn't hurt."

"But that pilot was killed! And you…you could have…" her mother's voice drifted off as she reached across the table for her daughter's hand. Kate squeezed steadily in return.

"I know, Mom; that's why I didn't want to tell you until I got here. I'm fine—thankfully. Rick and I were lucky." Actually, lucky didn't quite seem a strong enough descriptor. In telling the tale to her parents, Kate discovered once again just how dire their situation truly had been—not that she hadn't realized it at the time, but she believed her understanding and reactions were masked by both shock and adrenaline. Now with nearly two days' separation from the event, she felt her stomach clench as she described the state of the plane, and then again when she revealed how they realized the pilot had been killed.

As terrifying as it was to accept just how close to death she had come, Kate also knew that she couldn't let such an experience rule her life. Plane crashes were exceedingly rare—obviously, she and Rick's flights back to New York had gone just fine. She couldn't stop flying or stop traveling just for the fear of being in a crash again. This being said: she probably would not be taking any private planes late at night any time soon (not that she could afford it even if she wanted to).

"Oh—and Rick!" her mother gasped and clutched both hands to her chest. "I cannot believe you went through all of this with Richard Castle— _Richard Castle_!"

Kate laughed at her mother's starry-eyed tone. To her, Rick must have still seemed an untouchable celebrity, but after all their travels he was just "Rick" to Kate. "I know… the odds of him ending up in the seat beside me were rare enough, but…I don't know how many other celebrities would have offered to take me with them on their private planes."

Joanna beamed. "Oh I'm so glad to hear that he's such a kind man. He always seemed that way in his interviews, but you can never tell how a person really is until you interact with them in person."

"He's definitely…something." Kate let out a light laugh thinking of the many sides of Rick she'd seen over their time together. "But he's kind, for sure."

"Oh! I'm so jealous!" Johanna chortled and then stood from the table, picking up the empty dinner plates from the table as she went.

Kate smiled gently to herself as she stood to help clear the table as well. Since she wanted Rick's signed book to be a post-Christmas surprise, she had purposely not told her parents of the arrangement she made with him before parting ways as JFK. Besides, it was still possible, if not likely, that he would be too busy spending time with his family to sign one of her mother's books before she had to return to San Francisco. If that turned out to be the case, she wouldn't hold it against him. He certainly owed her nothing more than the many kindnesses he'd already paid her. Still, she hoped it worked out.

After picking up all she could carry, Kate walked the few steps into the kitchen and said, "But enough about me—how are you feeling?" As expected, when she arrived at her parent's apartment she was mildly shocked by her mother's change in appearance. As most six months had passed since they saw one another and in that time Johanna's kidney function had gone steadily downhill. Her face and neck were puffy and swollen and her skin appeared sallow. She no longer walked with a smooth, confident gate, but hobbled along almost painfully, as though she was a woman in her eighties not mid-fifties. Kate knew that later, once she was back in her childhood bed, she would curl up under the covers and shed tears over this heartbreaking sight, but for that moment she tried to remain as positive as she could.

"Well, you know—as good as I can be, I suppose. I still feel good day-to-day for the most part, but I do get tired very easily. Very, very easily," she said with a rather sad smile. "I just…I don't know—I sleep a lot, but it never seems like enough. I feel like I'm almost completely worthless here at home—your father does most of the cooking and cleaning. I'm hoping working only three days a week will help. At least I can clean and grocery shop on the days I'm not working."

"You're going part-time?" Kate asked, as it was the first of she heard of her mother's decision. Being a highly dedicated borderline workaholic, Johanna had rarely spent less than fifty hours per week at the legal aid office since she started six years earlier. When they visited her earlier that year, her father had asked her to help him convince her mother to stop working so much overtime as it seemed to be running her ragged, but she had not been aware that an even more drastic reduction in time was necessary, though it did make sense. Dialysis already ate up a bunch of time in her day and though she knew her mother was driven to help others, her own health needed to come first.

"Yes, starting the first of the year," Johanna said. "Your father is right—I don't need to be putting as much time in there as I am. They're just so short on staff! I say I'm only going to work forty-hours, but that inevitably drifts to forty-five, forty-six. Now maybe if I tell them I'm only working twenty-two hours a week I can get out of there somewhere around thirty." She winked and Kate laughed.

"I've been trying to get her to quit all together, but I'm not getting very far." Kate's father said when he appeared in the kitchen doorway.

Johanna clicked her tongue with annoyance. "And I keep telling you, Jim: what am I going to do? Sit around and stare at the walls all day long? I'll be miserable!"

"I'm not saying stay at home, but you could find something less stressful, less grueling. Like…volunteering at an animal shelter."

Kate laughed at her father's suggestion. Looking over at him she asked, "Do you want twelve dogs in the apartment, Dad?" They had never owned a pet mostly due to the fact that with both her parents being so busy, no one felt they had enough time to appropriately dedicate to walking a dog. However, Kate also knew her mother was not one to only partially commit to a cause and so extrapolating all that she did for those that needed legal help over the years, Kate did not believe it was a stretch to assume multiple animals would be adopted as a result.

"Well, no…."

"Oh you two." Johanna laughed and leaned back against the counter. "I appreciate the thoughts, dear, but I do not want to work at an animal shelter. I'm perfectly happy helping people with their legal needs; it's all I've ever wanted to do."

Kate walked over and gave her mother a hug, always loving the sentiments she had, as they made her want to be the best person she could be in order to make her mother proud. "We just don't want you pushing yourself too hard, Mom."

Joanna squeezed back. "I'm not—don't worry. Oh! I know—I can't believe we forgot to ask…but with all the drama from your trip…" She waved her hand flippantly and then asked her daughter, "How's Chris?"

"Oh." Kate was taken slightly off guard by the question and stammered out a response. "He's, um, he's…fine. I guess? He sounded fine when I talked to him during the ride over here."

"You could have brought him, you know," Joanna pointed out.

"No…no it's best this way. I mean, it's only been a few months."

"I thought you said six," her father chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah six but…" Kate rounded her shoulders as she gazed around at her parents. Though the notion would have sounded terrible if spoken aloud, she was actually glad Chris wasn't there with her, and her thoughts in that moment reaffirmed her decision not to invite him. She hadn't invited many boyfriends home over the years, but every time she did she typically found the event rather stressful. Her mother once wisely told her this was because she hadn't found the right man yet, and perhaps that was true. Whatever the case, she was glad she could simply focus on her parents that Christmas.

"I don't know…I like him, but I don't love him, and I feel like maybe he feels the same way," she concluded. Though she hadn't realized such feelings while still in San Francisco, her last call with him registered those thoughts. He sounded slightly surprised when she called him and explained that he and his brother were heading out to do some last minute shopping. He hadn't been rude or unkind, just busy. He told her that he'd call her later to hear about her trip back from Kansas, but when she hung up Kate realized she didn't even care all that much when or if he called her back.

Shaking her head, she forced out a smile and said, "I don't know…maybe…maybe it's just the result of the last few days; it's been a lot."

Johanna walked over and brushed some hair back from her face. "Of course it has sweetheart; perhaps the time apart will do you both some good, hmm? Now, are you ready to start the movie?"

Kate's brow wrinkled. "We're not making cookies first?" As per tradition, after their Christmas Eve meal they always made a small batch of cookies and waited until they were warm and fresh from the oven to start their movie so they could enjoy both together.

"Oh I'm sorry, Katie; I completely forgot to make the dough this morning before I left for dialysis and now I'm afraid I'm a bit too tired to mix it, wait for it to bake, and then start the movie."

"Oh, that's okay." Kate forced a smile despite her disappointment. Yes, she was sad that one of her favorite traditions would not come to be on what could be their final holiday, but spending time with her mother was the most important thing. "I'm still full from dinner anyway," she added.

The Beckett trio then made their way to the family room, where her father took a seat in "his" chair (the recliner he got for his fiftieth birthday) and her mother took a seat on the couch while Kate retrieved their preferred movie from the shelf. After popping the DVD for _A Christmas Carol_ into the player, Kate joined her mother on the couch. Instead of staying to her own cushion like she'd been doing as she grew older, Kate sat immediately beside her mother, snuggled up to her, and rested her head just beside her shoulder. Her mother turned towards her and kissed her head; Kate shut her eyes.

Curled in that position with her eyes closed Kate could have easily transported herself back two decades earlier to when she'd done the same. Of course, she'd been much smaller then, so she fit more compactly at her mother's side, and she'd still wished for frivolous presents like fancy toys or other items she didn't really need. Now, in her late twenties she had no illusions that Santa would bring her what she asked for. She knew that no matter how hard she wished for it, her mother would most likely not be around for another Christmas. Even though that broke her heart, Kate silently resolved to make that Christmas the best Christmas she could so that the memories could last forever.

* * *

Seated on his couch with his tongue trapped between his teeth Castle struggled while trying to straighten the rotor blade of the ultra-cool remote-control helicopter his daughter and mother gifted him. He'd only been flying it around the apartment (despite his mother's warning—like he was a little kid or something) for twenty minutes before he crashed it into one of the bookshelves. The impact bent the rotor blade so that the chopper no longer flew perfectly straight. He was hoping to fix it, but was thus far having no luck.

At that moment, his daughter plopped down on the couch and leaned against his side. She didn't say anything, merely sat there with her hands folded in her lap and her feet tucked up beside her.

"Whatcha doin' pumpkin?" he asked, his eyes still focused on his toy.

"Nothing…"

As her tone made it sound like anything but, Castle put the helicopter aside and turned to face her. "Sure sounds like something. Did you have fun with your knitting book? That was the one you wanted right?" When his daughter had requested a book about learning how to knit, Castle had almost laughed as it was a very unexpected request. Then he learned that his mother had turned her on to the concept by talking about making costumes and other theatre décor and it started to make more sense, so he'd found the book and tucked inside it an IUO for three skeins of yarn in whatever color she wanted when the next went to the craft store.

"Yeah it was. I just wanna sit here with you. Is that okay?"

"Of course," he replied, though he still felt there was a reason behind her sudden clinginess and was determined to figure it out. "You know, you and I will have seven more days together just the two of us before you go back to school so you'd better start planning what you want us to do."

"I thought Gran wanted us to go to her theatre group party with her on Friday afternoon?"

Castle grunted as he had temporarily forgotten about the party he did not wish to attend because it would involve many people trying to talk him into writing a play and subsequently asking if they could star in it. "Right…so six and a half days then."

"I don't really care—whatever we do together is fine." With that, she rested her cheek against his shoulder and he knew for certain something was going on with her.

"Alexis, honey, what's wrong? You usually have our whole weeks planned before I even ask—and now you're not even playing with all your new things," he said, gesturing towards the space in front of the Christmas tree which was still littered with wrapping and open gifts.

"Nothing's wrong! I just want to spend time with you because…because…what if I lost you?"

When her bottom lip began to tremble, his heart broke and he pulled her into a tight hug. So that was it—this was still fallout from his harrowing tale the night before. Not wanting to unnecessarily upset his daughter, Castle had considered censoring the story, and telling her only that the plane had to make an emergency landing, but doing that would mean he needed to lie about how his leg became injured and he didn't want to do that to her. Thought she was not yet a teenager, Alexis had always been mature for her age and he thought she could handle the truth—and she had done well the night before, but he should have seen this coming.

"I'm fine, pumpkin—really."

"No you're not." She sniffled into the sleeve of his shirt. "Your leg is all stitched up."

"Well yeah, but it's healing." The wound was looking very good and he'd even managed to walk around the apartment that morning without his crutch. Yes, it was still more painful than he would have liked, but he knew by the time the stitches were removed the following week he'd barely even notice the injury.

"But you could have been hurt worse!"

"I know, Alexis; I know. Trust me, Kate and I were both very well aware of that, but the point is: we weren't. We got very, very lucky and I promise I won't take that for granted, but you also can't dwell on things that didn't happen, okay? Especially not at Christmas." He brushed away one of the fat tears dangling at the edge of her jaw and then bopped her nose with the knuckle of his index finger in an attempt to get her to smile.

"I know…I just don't want to lose you."

"You won't; I promise." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Now, what do you want to play with next? That new board game or should we keep trying to fix the helicopter? Or…should we just stuff our faces with more cookies and totally ruin our dinner?"

"Cookies!"

He winked at her. "Good choice."

"Hey Dad?"

"Hmm?" he called back over his shoulder as he walked into the kitchen to grab two glasses for milk to go along with their cookies.

"Is Gina not going to live here anymore?"

Castle felt his heart clench in his chest at her words and turned back around slowly. "What makes you ask that?" he questioned, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"I heard you and Gran talking last night after I went upstairs. She said something like it might be for the best that Gina is leaving you."

"Oh." His tone was clipped and he leaned his hand heavily against the counter while staring down at his blue-eyed, red-headed angel; without question the single best thing in his life. Sadly, this would not be the first time he had to explain divorce to her, though thankfully she would grasp the concept much easier at twelve than she did at five. Still, as he hadn't planned to speak with her about it until after the holiday, he felt ill prepared for their conversation.

"Um…yes. Yes that's true. Gina has said that she wants to move out and so…yes, we most likely will be getting a divorce. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you but, honestly, this all just happened and, well, I wasn't entirely sure what to say."

Alexis walked over and gently placed her hand on his arm. "It's okay, Dad. I'm not that shocked."

"You're…not!?" he responded seeing as her message had been more than a little surprising to him.

"Um, yeah. Who wants to spend time away from their so-called 'family' at Christmastime?"

A mirthless laugh escaped his lips. When Gina had told them all a month earlier that she would be Christmasing with her friends instead of them, he'd been slightly annoyed, but then realized that he actually didn't want to fight with her around the holidays, so he'd let it go. Alexis's observation, however, was entirely on point.

"That's true I just…I don't know. I thought maybe the time apart would do us good."

"But Dad…she doesn't make you happy anymore. You deserve someone who will make you really, really happy."

He smiled down and stroked his hand over her cheek. Wise beyond her years—as always. He knew one of the real reasons he was hesitant to accept Gina's infidelity and, for lack of a better term, falling out of love with him was because he didn't want a second failed marriage, but of course he did not want to stress his young daughter with that knowledge so he simply said, "Thanks, Alexis; I appreciate that. Now how about those cookies?"

* * *

 **A/N** : Thank you all so much for your reviews. The final chapter will be up tomorrow, Christmas Eve


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Standing in the lobby of her parent's apartment building, Kate anxiously shifted her weight back and forth from her right side to her left chewing on her bottom lip all the while. She knew she didn't have to wait for Rick in the lobby of her building; he was obviously capable of following the directions to her apartment, but she also was not sure if he would still be using his crutch and thus need help. Plus, between her anxious energy and her mother's nerves, she was actually grateful for the several minute break away from her parents.

All in all, their Christmas had been just as wonderful as she hoped it would be. They had a delicious meal, exchanged gifts, watched more Christmas movies, and best of all, swapped some of their favorite stories from years' past. She didn't think a better last Christmas for them could have existed and the week would be made even better by the arrival of her mystery writer guest.

As per their agreement, Kate called Rick mid-morning on the twenty-sixth and he seemed genuinely pleased to hear from her. He told her that despite having many exciting plans with his daughter, he'd left the twenty-seventh relatively open, not sure when would be best for her mother's dialysis schedule, because of course he wished for her to watch him sign her book in person. Kate requested that he come over at ten since her mother had to leave no later than noon for her dialysis and he happily agreed. With their plans set, Kate finally revealed her secondary Christmas gift to her mother and to say that Johanna had been excited would have been an understatement.

Promptly at ten, Kate watched Castle enter the building lobby and was pleased to see that he wasn't using his crutch. He did, however, seem to be wearing a scowl instead of a smile, which had her concerned. "Hey—thanks for coming. Is…everything okay?"

He appeared a bit startled to see her and did a double-take. "K-Kate—oh! Hi… I'm sorry—I didn't expect to see you in the lobby." Once he'd recovered, he swooped in and greeted her with a quick one-armed hug.

"No, no it's fine. I actually thought you might have your crutch and—well, never mind. I'm glad you're here; I really, really appreciate it, but don't worry; we won't keep you long. I'm sure you have plenty of things to do."

He shook his head. "Don't be silly—I can absolutely stay until your mother leaves for dialysis. I just…I apologize. I received a voicemail from Gina and stupidly I listened to it on the way over here."

Kate cringed. "Oh. I'm sorry."

He shook off her concern. "No, no, just forget about it. Shall we?" He swept his hand towards the elevator and they both walked towards it.

"How's your leg?"

"Good—real good. This is actually the first morning that I can tell it's definitely on the mend."

"Great!" she said, very glad to hear that he was not suffering any long-term ill-effects of their crash.

He smiled at her as the elevator doors closed in front of them. "Good Christmas?"

"Oh, yeah. It was…it was really nice. How about yours?"

"Good, good. Alexis loved all her presents…and I already kind of broke mine."

Kate laughed. "Did you really?"

"It was a toy helicopter…long story, but I think I can get it fixed next week."

"Well…I hope you can fix it…" she said, not really knowing what else to say to a man in his late thirties who broke a toy helicopter on Christmas.

A moment later, the elevator doors opened on the third floor of the building and Kate led the way to her parent's apartment. She let them both inside and then walked into the living area were both her parents were seated. She then proceeded to do the introductions; amusingly, her mother seemed rather flustered.

"It is so nice to meet you, Mr. Castle," Joanna said as she shook the author's hand while blushing furiously.

"Please, call me Rick."

"Rick," she echoed with a near chortle. "It's just such a pleasure; I love all your books. Oh! Oh and of course—we are so thankful that you helped Katie get home to us."

"Mom," Kate said in a warning tone. They had a discussion the night before about treating Rick like a person and not a celebrity and, most importantly, not talking too much about their crash.

"Well, one could argue it was my fault we were in that predicament to begin with…but nevertheless it wasn't a problem; I always love doing nice things for people around the holidays. Oh! Speaking of…" He walked over to the coffee table where his inaugural book, _Flowers for Your Grave_ , sat on the nearest corner. The cover was tattered and torn around the edges and the pages were well dog-eared, but Kate didn't think he would mind as she believed the fact that the book had been read dozens of times would be a compliment to him.

"Is this one your favorite?" he asked Johanna while dipping his hand into his blazer pocket and pulling out a black sharpie.

"Oh well…I don't know about that—it's so hard to choose a favorite! It's one of my top few, for sure. Actually, it's the first one I read."

He smiled as he finished signing his name and then turned to her and asked, "Really? Did you read them all in order?"

"I believe so, yes. At least—I tried to. _Flowers for Your Grave_ was the first I read—I remember we were on vacation and I popped into the first book store I found and there it was sitting on a shelf all by itself. After I finished it I liked it so much I tried to find others you wrote but there was only one other."

Rick's brow rose. "Wow—that must have been twelve, thirteen years ago."

Johanna nodded. "Katie was in high school so that sounds about right—and I've read every one you've written since!"

Kate let out a breathy chuckle and said quietly, "Told you she was a fan…"

Rick merely grinned at her before turning back to Johanna. "I'm very pleased to hear that, but I must admit to being a little surprised. Often times when I run into those in law enforcement or legal careers they don't like to read about topics that hit so close to home, shall we say…"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh that doesn't bother me."

"She likes to read them and find all the mistakes the authors made," Jim pointed out wisely.

"Jim!"

"Uh oh," Rick said in a sing-song tone before glancing at Jim and Kate briefly before turning back to Johanna. Kate covered her face with embarrassment as her mother attempted to defend herself.

"I don't read them solely for that, but…I have found mistakes on occasion. Not too many in yours, though."

Rick placed his palm flat on his chest. "Well I'm very relieved to hear that. I do pride myself on how much research I do; I feel accuracy really crafts the best, most believable, and sometimes scariest stories."

"Well I assure you—you succeed!"

He nodded to her graciously before an unreadable smile crossed his face. "Thank you, but actually that brings me to an interesting point… On the way over here, I was wondering if you might be willing to let me interview you."

Johanna nearly fell off the couch. "Me!?"

"Yes, you! As I said: I pride myself on research and I love to dive into anything I can, even if I'm not going to use it until a later date. I was actually thinking about asking Kate, but…" he paused to give her a quick nod. "Well, it's a little bit more impractical to shadow her all the way in San Francisco…"

"Shadow?"

He bobbed his head. "If you're up to it. My schedule is entirely flexible and of course I'd never want to interfere with any of your doctor appointments or anything like that, but if you'd let me, I'd really like to dive in and see things from your perspective."

"Oh. Well." Johanna's eyes widened and she rested her hands on her chest. "I…I suppose we can work something out if that's what you really want."

"I do, and I appreciate your consideration very much," he said. Then, turning to the youngest female in the room he asked, "You don't mind, do you Kate?"

"I…well, no." She stumbled a bit, caught off guard by her inquiry. Why would she mind that he wanted to ask her mother some research questions? Considering how _thrilled_ her mother would be about it, Kate was nothing but happy to hear this news. Though they hadn't known each other very long, she did believe he was a man of his word. That was: if he was asking for an interview, he intended to follow through. However, she couldn't imagine their time together would last more than a few hours—how much research would someone was knowledgeable as him need to do? Still, she knew whatever time he spent with her mother—whether ten minutes or several hours—it would definitely be one of the highlights of her life.

"Mom'll be a much better interviewee than me," she added with a soft smile.

His gaze softened and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle under the intensity of his azure stare. "Oh, I don't know about that," he spoke in a soft rumble. Then he looked away and broke the spell of their moment. Dipping his hand back into his blazer pocket he pulled out a business card and reached past Kate to press it into her mother's palm. "There's my number—give me a call after the first of the year and we'll see what we can set up. I'm looking forward to it."

"Oh—me too! Thank you so much—I'm really flattered."

He winked at her. "You should be. I can only imagine a woman as wonderful as Kate comes from equally wonderful parents."

A chuckle escaped Kate's lips before she could hold it in. When he gazed over at her, she said pointed, "You are on a roll today, Rick."

He gave her an equally pointed look. "Only speaking the truth, Kate."

She grumbled, slightly embarrassed as she turned her gaze down towards her lap. "Yes…well…" she muttered, hoping the subject would soon be changed.

For another twenty minutes Rick and Johanna carried most of the conversation before Rick ultimately announced it was time for him to leave as he didn't want to take up any more of their time. Kate was quick to jump up and offer to walk him out, but really she had ulterior motives. Though on some level she knew it was unnecessary, Kate still felt compelled to thank Rick for stopping by the apartment that morning even if it was in a small way; she simply couldn't get over how kind he was being and wanted to pay him back. Plus an excuse for a brief escape was certainly not a bad thing by that point in her visit.

"Listen I…I really, really appreciate you doing this for her; you have no idea."

He shrugged his right shoulder. "It was no problem, honestly."

"Can I buy you a coffee or something as a thank you? There's a great shop right across the street."

"Oh." His brow rose with obvious surprised. He stared at her for several seconds to the point where she was certain he was going to turn her down, but then he finally said, "Sure if you want."

"Great!" She reached out for her coat on the nearby hook and began tugging it on. "Let's go."

* * *

"Once again: I really can't thank you enough for making her last Christmas this special."

Castle accepted the coffee cup that Kate handed him with a quiet thank you while his brain focused on her words. He had absolutely no problem doing kind things for his fans; he felt it was his duty as a person with reasonable notoriety. Besides, it made him happy, thus he had absolutely no problem visiting Kate's mother and signing a book for her. What made his heart sink deep in his ribcage, however, was the notion that he would be one of the highlights on what could be her last major holiday on this planet. Such a notion was almost too painful to bear.

"She needs a kidney transplant, right? Sorry, I don't want to pry," he added quickly at her hesitant gaze from across their two-seater table, "but I was doing a little research…"

She gazed at him for another moment before dropping her chin towards her chest. "Yeah, yeah—a transplant. My dad and I were tested a year ago, but we're not matches and it's really, really hard to get a donor because so many people need kidneys."

Castle pressed his lips together tightly; hating that there was a solution, but an unattainable one. "Is there anything you can do to get higher on the transplant list? Is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head and curled her fingers more snugly around her coffee cup. "No, no, please Rick; you've done enough."

He shook his head. "I don't mind. I'd be more than willing to-"

"You've done enough." She cut him off in a conclusive though not unkind manner. "Besides, even if you wanted you—Oh. Sorry." She apologized quickly when her ringing cellphone interrupted them.

"Go ahead; take it," he said, leaning back in his seat and taking a sip of coffee.

She shook her head and pressed a button on the side of the phone to silence it. "No, no; it's just Chris—I'll call him back."

"Chris is your boyfriend, right?" As they had spent nearly twenty-four hours straight attached at the hip, Castle had heard her mention a boyfriend a few times, particularly when talking about calling or texting him. He couldn't quite recall the exact name of said gentleman—assuming she told him at all—but given the context he merely deduced.

"Yep."

"He's back in San Francisco?"

She nodded. "Yeah we're not…we haven't really been together that long and, to be honest, I don't know how much longer we'll be together. The past week has been very eye opening and I…sorry."

He shook off her rosy-cheeked apology. "No, please. If anyone understands relationship problems, it's me." She gave him a skeptical look, so he continued encouragingly, "Seriously—my soon-to-be-ex-wife called and left me a message asking me to pack up her things and ship them to her new address. She has a strange amount of faith that they'll arrive unbroken."

"Jeez!"

Taking another sip of coffee, Castle huffed out a breath and drummed his fingers against the table. He wasn't that type of person—not really. He hadn't been when Meredith left him and so he'd take the high road with Gina too, but he faced many moments when checking his anger seemed like the hardest thing in the world—and he knew there were many more to come. "I'm kidding…mostly. Gina's also my agent at Black Pawn so I suppose we must remain at least reasonably civil for the time being. Point is: lay it on me." Actually, hearing about Kate's relationship dilemmas—which were sure to be less complicated than his—would be a nice change of pace.

She held herself practically frozen for several seconds before letting out a breath, rounding her shoulders, and leaning her forearms heavily against the table. "I…I don't even know where to begin, really. Chris is also a lawyer, though we work at different firms. We're both really busy; we barely see each other. At first, I really liked that—that we both had our own thing and how we really only had one night a week to be together. It helped me do what I always do and keep one foot out the door…."

"And why would you do that?" he asked when she said that statement with a hint of self-annoyance.

She gave a helpless little shrug. "Ah…because I've never been good at relationships, opening up to people…"

He leaned away, surprised by her statement as she had seemed reasonably open with him, particularly given that they hadn't yet known each other a week. "I don't think that's true."

"We barely know each other," she pointed out with a shrug, further reinforcing his thought.

"And yet we're having this conversation."

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Well, you're an impartial third party and I'm looking for advice."

Grin returning to his face, Castle leaned in so he could pay close attention; he loved giving advice! "I'm listening…"

She picked at her left thumb nail for a moment before beginning her story quietly. "Eight years ago—almost exactly—was my mother's attack; it happened in early January. I was going to school at Stanford at that time and even though she was still in the hospital at the time, and had just had her kidney removed, I still went back for the spring semester. She told me to. My dad told me to. Actually I think he might have carried me to the airport on his back if I hadn't agreed to go on my own..." She added with a small laugh.

"They told me to focus on school because they'd be fine. And they were but…it just never sat well with me, you know? I know being alone while my mother was still recovering put a huge burden on my dad. I had so much guilt over those months thinking about how horribly selfish I was being. I didn't want to be a semester behind in school so I let them talk me into going on with my schoolwork while my mom was so sick."

"Well, I understand your urge to feel guilty, but your parents did encourage you to go," he pointed out.

"I know that and I know they're not upset with me for going back to school and they don't resent me for it. Actually, I think they're proud I was able to keep my grades up at the same level even with all the ups and downs of my mother's recovery. Still…I…I don't know." She dropped her chin all the way to her chest and raked her fingers back through the curtain of hair that had fallen down with her actions. Looking back up she skimmed her fingers over her lips and gazed over at him. "Rational or not, I do still feel guilty about it. I should have been here helping, transferred to one of the schools in the city if that's what it took, but I didn't and…and now I feel like maybe this is my chance to do it differently."

Rick hummed to himself as he considered her words. "So you…want to move back to New York?"

She nodded. "I've been thinking about it. I mean, yeah I'll lose three years' worth of hard work at my firm in San Francisco, but there are plenty of firms here."

"Well it's not like you're moving to Manhattan, Kansas," he joked in hopes of getting a smile out of her. It worked and she let out an audible blip of laughter.

"Right."

They were silent for a few moments before Castle told her, "Well, if you're looking for my advice, I'm not entirely sure what to tell you—only you know what decision is best for you and your life, but I am a big believer in listening to your gut…and that things happen for a reason."

Her brow wrinkled. "What like…my mom got sick so I'd have to move back here?"

"No, no—I meant the plan crash; to give you clarity."

She gestured towards him with both of her hands. "See that's just it! We both could have died in that crash, just like the pilot and that's why I want to make the best of the time I have now and… I don't know. I'm usually a much more rational thinker than this."

He tilted his head to the side as he gazed at her as her comment struck him as incorrect. "Who says you're not being rational? You seem to be thinking this through quite well as far as I can tell." He let a few moments of silence pass by before asking, "Have you spoke to anyone else about this? Like…Chris, perhaps?"

Her eyes went wide and she stared a bit too intensely at her coffee cup. "Um, no. He doesn't know any of this. I…I didn't know how to bring it up especially since I don't think we have something that would work long distance. He's…I just don't think he's the type of guy I'd want to be in a plane crash with."

By her wry smile, Castle could tell she was partially joking, but wanted to play along so he asked very seriously, "Just how many more crashes to you plan on being in, Kate?"

"Hopefully zero."

He winked at her. "Just checking."

"Yes well…I'm still thinking everything over, obviously. At least I'll have something to do on what is hopefully a very uneventful flight back to San Francisco."

"Oh, well I'll drink to that." He lifted his coffee cup and held it out to her. She laughed and tapped her cup against his before taking a drink. "And, you know, if you ever want to talk again you have my number."

She appeared confused for a moment, but then highly amused. "Seriously?!"

"What?"

She shrugged and traced the rim of her cup with her index finger. "I don't know I just…I kind of thought we…we'd go our separate ways now."

He blinked, surprised she'd have such a thought. "Is that what you want?"

"Not necessarily. I just…can we be friends?"

"Why can't we?"

She shrugged. "Do we have much in common?"

"Sure; we both survived a plane crash. We both love my books."

She laughed and rolled her eyes slightly. "Right."

"Those are factual statements, are they not?" he asked. She nodded, though suspiciously so. "Thus, we have a foundation to build our friendship on."

She took a sip of coffee then leaned back in her seat, clearly amused. "Whatever you say, Rick."

Feeling his heart flutter at the way her lips curled after she spoke his name, he leaned across the table, bringing his face mush closer to hers, as he promised, "I'm serious Kate. Our story—it's only just begun."

* * *

 **A/N:** Merry Christmas to all my readers - thank you so much for taking this 8 day journey with me.

You guys wouldn't be interested in a sequel would you? No? Maybe?

haha just kidding of course there's a sequel. **Side by Side** will start on Saturday :)


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